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REPORT  OF  THE   PROCEEDINGS 


OF    THE 


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I.  GENERAL  EXERCISES,  Etc. 
II.  THE   PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM 


General  Exercises 


OF 


THE,  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF 

CHARITIES,  CORRECTION  AND  PHILANTHROPY, 

CHICAGO,  JUNE,  1893 


TOGETHER  WITH 


LIST  OF  OFFICERS  AND  MEMBERS,  PROGRAMME 

AND  RULES 


BALTIMORE 

THK   JOHNS    HOPKINS 

PRESS 

» 

LONDON 

THE    SCIENTIFIC    PRESS, 

LIMITED 

428  Strand,  W.  C. 

1894 

>    9            J 

Copyright,  1894,  by  The  Johns  Hopkins  Press. 


The  Friedenwald  Company,  Printers, 
Baltimore,  Md. 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


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C/D  PAGE 


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Officers 

:         Programme  of  Sessions  and  Subjects 8 

..         Rules g 

Members 12 

Preface .  21; 

;»•         General  Exercises 29 

.  Sermon  :    The  Relation  of  the    Church    to  Charities  and  Reform.     By 

;;                                Rev.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer 36 

Appendix:  What  is  the  True   Work  of  Humanity  for  Humanity?     By 

Mrs.  Abby  Morton  Uiaz     44 

a: 


430358 


THE  WORLD'S  CONGRESS  AUXILIARY  OF  THE 
WORLD'S  COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION. 


GENERAL  OFFICERS: 

President, 

Charles  C.  Bonney. 

Vice-President, 
Thomas  B.  Bryan. 


WOMAN'S  BRANCH: 

President, 

Mrs.  Potter  Palmer. 

Vice-President, 
Mrs.  Charles  Henrotin. 


DEPARTMENT  OF  MORAL  AND  SOCIAL  REFORM. 

Mrs.  James  M.  Flower,  Chairman  of  Joint  Committee. 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES, 
CORRECTION  AND  PHILANTHROPY. 

June  12-18,  1893. 

committee  of  organization. 
Frederick  Ho\vard  Wines,  John  G.  Shortall, 

Mrs.  James  M.  Flower. 

Correspojtdittg  Secretary  and  Sec'y  to  the  Coininittee  of  Organization, 

Nathaniel  S.  Rosenau. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  CONGRESS. 

President, 

General  Rutherford  B.  Hayes.* 

First  Vice-President, 
Frederick  Howard  Wines,  LL.D. 

Second  Vice-President, 
Robert  Treat  Paine. 

*  General  Hayes  .iccepted  the  presidency  of  the  Congress,  but  died  Ijefore  it  met,     'I'he  vacancy 
was  not  filled. 


D         INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Honorary  Vice-Presidents. 

JEnglandf  Henry  C.  Burdett.  ' 

France,  Marquis  de  Chasseloup  Laubat. 
Austriaf  Dr.  Isidor  Singer. 
Russia f  Michael  Kazarin. 
Italy,  Mme.  F.  Zampini  Salazar. 
Sivitzerland,  Edward  Boos-Jeglier. 
BelgiuTn,  Prosper  Van  Geert. 
A  astral ia.  Miss  Catherine  H.  Spence. 

General  Secretary,  * 

Alexander  Johnson. 

Secretaries, 
John  M.  Glenn.  Joseph  P.  Byers. 

£xecuti7/e  Committee , 

The  President,  First  Vice-President,  General  Secretary,  and  the 

Chairmen  of  the  Eight  Sections. 


SEOTXOISrS. 
I.— The  Public  Treatment  of  Pauperism. 

Chairman,  Ansley  Wilcox, 

Charity  Organization  Society,  Buffalo,  New  York. 

Secretary,  John  H.  Finley,  Ph.  D., 

President  of  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  Illinois. 

II.— The  Care  of  Dependent,  Neglected  and  Wayward 

Children. 

Chairman,  Rev.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer, 

Board  of  Control  of  State  Home  and  School  for  Dependent  Children,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 

Secretary,  Charles  W.  Birtwell, 

General  Secretary  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Boston,  Massachusetts. 

III.— Hospital  Care  of  the  Sick,  the  Training  of  Nurses, 
Dispensary  "Work,  and  First  Aid  to  the  Injured. 

Chairman,  John  S.  Billings,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  U.  S.  A., 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Secretary,  Henry  M.  Hurd,  M.  D., 

Superintendent  of  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore,  Maryland. 


OFFICERS. 

Subsection  on  Nux'sing. 
Chairman,  Miss  Isabel  A.  Hampton, 

Superintendent  of  Trainini»  School  for  Nurses,  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore,  Marylan 

Secretary,  Miss  Emma  Cameron, 

Assistant  Superintendent  of  Illinois  Training  School  for  Nurses,  Chicago. 

IV.— The  Commitment,  Detention,  Care  and  Treatment  of  the 

Insane. 

Chairman,  G.  Alder  Blumer,  M.  D., 

Superintendent  of  State  Hospital  for  Insane,  Utica,  New  York 

Secretary,  A.  B.  Richardson,  M.  D., 

Superintendent  of  Asylum  for  Insane,  Columbus,  Ohio. 

v.— The  Prevention  and  Repression  of  Crime,  and  the 
Punishment  and  Reformation  of  Criminals. 

Chair-man,  Charlton  T.  Lewis, 

President  of  New  York  State  Prison  Association,  New  York  City. 

Secretary,  Rev.  John  L.  Milligan, 

Secretary  of  National  Prison  Association,  Allegheny,  Pennsylvania. 

VI.— The  Organization  and  Afllliation  of  Charities,  and 
Preventive  Work  among  the  Poor. 

Chairman,  Daniel  C.  Gilman,  LL.  D., 

President  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  Baltimore,  Maryland. 

Secretary,  Richmond  Mavo-Smith,  Ph.  D., 

Professor  of  Political  Economy  and  Social  Science,  Columbia  College,  New  York  City. 

VII.— Sociology  as  a  Special  Topic  in  Institutions  of  Learning. 
Chairman,  E.  Benjamin  Andrews,  LL.  D., 

President  of  Brown  University,  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 

Secretary,  Amos  G.  Warner,  Ph.  D., 

Professor  of  Social  Science  in  Leland  Stanford,  Jr  ,  University,  Palo  Alto,  California. 

VIII.— The  Care  and  Training  of  Feeble-minded  Children. 
Chairman,  George  H.  Knight,  M.  D., 

Superintendent  of  School  for  Imbeciles,  Lakeville,  Connecticut. 

Secretary,  Gustavus  A,  Doren,  M.  D., 

Superintendent  of  Institution  for  Feeble-minded  Youth,  Columbus,  Ohio. 


PROGRAMME  OF  SESSIONS  AND  SUBJECTS. 

Monday,  June  12. 

10.00  A.  M. — Opening  Exercises. 

Address  in  Memoriam  of  General  Rutherford 

B.  Hayes.     By  Rev.  Frederick  H.  Wines,  LL.  D. 
Oration: 

"  The  Problem  of  Charity.''     By  Rev.  Francis  G. 
Peabody,  D.  D. 
12.00      M. — Luncheon  and  Conversazione. 
2.00  P.  M. — Section  Meetings. 
8.00  P.  M. — General  Session. 

"  The  Public  Treatment  of  Paitperism." 

Tuesday,  June  13. 

10.00  A.  M. — Business  Session. 
10.30  A.  M. — Section  Meetings. 

2.00  P.  M. — Section  Meetings. 

8.00  P.  M. — General  Session. 

"  The  Relation  of  Public  and  Private  Charity.'^ 

Wednesday,  June  14. 

10.00  A.  M. — General  Session. 

''Hospital    Care   of   the   Sick;    the    Training    of 
Nurses  ;  First  Aid  to  the  Injured.^^ 

2.00  P.  M. — Section  Meetings. 
8.00  P.  M. — Gener.al  Session. 

"  The  Care  of  Dependent,  Neglected  and  Wayward 
Children.'" 

Thursday,  June  15. 

10.00  A.  M. — Business  Session. 
10.30  A.  M. — Section  Meetings. 
8.00  P.  M. — General  Session. 

"  The  Care  and  Training  of  Feeble-minded  Chil- 
dren.'' 


RULES.  9 

Friday,  June  i6. 

lo.oo  A.  M.— General  Session. 

"  Sociology  as  a  Special   Topic   in    Institutions  of 
Learningy 
lo  30  A.  M. — Section  Meetings. 
2.00  P.  M. — Section  Meetings. 
8.00  P.  M. — General  Session. 

"  77^<?    Uses   of  hnprisoywienf'' ;    "The    Care  and 
Treatment  of  the  Insane'' 

Sunday,  June  18. 

11.00  A.  M. — Religious  Service. 

Sermon  :  "  The  Relation  of  the   Church  to  Charities 
and  Reform^     By  Rev.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer. 

S  00  P.  M. — General  Session. 

"  The  Relation  of  the  Kindergarten  to  Pauperism 

and  Crime'''     By  Mrs.  Sarah  B.  Cooper. 
'■'■  Avierican    Ed^ication  from  a  National  Point  of 
View."     By  Dr.  Felix  Adler. 
Closing  Exercises. 


RULES. 


I. — Time,  Place  of  Meeting,  Object  and  Membership. 

1.  The  Congress  will  meet  in  the  city  of  Chicago  on  Monday 
morning,  June  12th,  1893,  at  10  o'clock,  in  a  hall  of  the  Art  Institute. 

2.  The  object  of  the  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Cor- 
rection and  Philanthropy  is  to  bring  together  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
during  the  time  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  interested 
persons  of  all  countries,  to  discuss  matters  charitable,  correctional  and 
philanthropic. 

3.  The  governments  of  foreign  nations,  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  of  the  individual  states  of  the  United  States,  scientific 
societies,  official  bodies,  and  corporations  and  societies  which  own  or 
control  charitable  or  penal  institutions,  or  are  engaged  in  any  kind 


10      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

of  philanthropic  work,  are  invited  to  co-operate  with  the  committee  of 
organization  and  to  send  representatives  to  the  Congress.  Member- 
ship in  the  Congress  will  be  limited  to  persons  bearing  credentials 
from  the  authorities  and  organizations  herein  referred  to,  and  to  such 
private  individuals  as  are  interested  in  charitable  and  penal  work  as 
may  be  admitted  to  membership  by  vote  of  the  executive  committee, 
or  who  may  be  specially  invited  by  the  committee  of  organization,  or 
the  chairman  and  secretary  of  a  section. 

Delegates  must  present  their  credentials  before  registering  as 
members  of  the  Congress. 

From  the  obvious  necessities  of  the  case,  no  persons  other  than 
those  herein  specified  can  be  permitted  to  participate  in  the  debates 
or  to  vote  on  questions  before  the  Congress.  But  a  general  invitation 
is  extended  to  all  persons  who  may  be  interested  in  the  questions 
discussed  to  attend  the  sessions  and  listen  to  the  debates. 

II. — The  Work  of  the  Congress. 

4.  The  work  of  the  Congress  will  be  confined  to  matters  germane 
to  the  titles  of  the  various  sections  into  which  the  Congress  is  divided. 
Each  section  will  have  devoted  to  it  one  general  session  of  the  Con- 
gress, and  will  hold,  besides,  five  sectional  meetings. 

5.  An  executive  committee,  composed  of  the  president,  first  vice- 
president,  general  secretary,  and  the  chairmen  of  the  sections,  will 
have  charge  of  the  general  administration  of  the  Congress  from 
the  time  of  its  assembly,  under  the  rules  framed  by  the  committee  of 
organization. 

6.  Copies  of  all  papers  presented  at  sessions  of  the  Congress  shall 
be  furnished  for  publication  in  its  proceedings. 

7.  In  preparing  the  proceedings  for  publication,  the  committee  of 
organization  reserves  the  right  to  abbreviate  papers  and  the  steno- 
grapher's report  of  remarks. 

III. — Rules  of  Order, 

8.  The  Congress  will  be  under  the  direction  of  the  committee  of 
organization,  which  will  present  further  rules  for  the  government  of 
its  proceedings  before  its  opening. 

9.  The  sessions  of  the  Congress  and  its  sections  will  be  strictly  in 
accordance  with  the  accompanying  general  programme. 

10.  English  will  be  the  exclusive  language  of  the  Congress. 


RULES.  1 1 

11.  Papers  may,  however,  be  submitted  to  the  committee  of 
organization,  in  any  language,  and  the  committee  will,  in  its  discre- 
tion, publish  complete  translations  or  English  abstracts  in  the  pro- 
ceedings. 

12.  No  paper  will  be  read  at  a  general  session  of  the  Congress 
unless  its  author  is  present,  except  by  decision  of  the  executive 
committee.  When  an  author  is  absent,  his  paper  will  be  read  by 
title  and  included  in  the  published  proceedings,  in  the  discretion  of 
the  committee  of  organization,  unless  otherwise  especially  ordered. 

13  Not  to  exceed  thirty  minutes  will  be  allowed  for  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  paper,  except  by  previous  arrangement  with  the  committee 
of  organization.  In  cases  where  a  paper  will  exceed  these  limits,  and 
its  value  will  be  impaired  by  condensation,  the  paper  will  be  received 
and  printed,  and  the  author  given  time,  not  exceeding  the  above 
limit,  in  which  to  present  a  resum6. 

14.  Debaters  will  be  limited  to  five  minutes,  and  no, person  will  be 
allowed  to  speak  to  the  same  subject  more  than  twice.  This  rule 
may  be  suspended  by  a  special  order. 

15.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  chairman  of  each  section  to  organize  the 
work  of  his  section,  and  to  prepare  programmes  for  the  general  ses- 
sion of  his  section  and  the  five  special  meetings  of  his  section, 
which  programmes  shall  be  submitted  to  the  committee  of  organiza- 
tion and  the  president  of  the  Auxiliary,  for  approval. 

16.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  secretary  of  each  section  to  carry  on  the 
correspondence  of  the  section  under  the  direction  of  its  chairman, 
and  especially  to  secure  foreign  representation  in  the  work  of  the 
section.  He  shall  keep  a  record  of  the  proceedings  of  his  section, 
during  the  time  the  Congress  is  in  session,  and  shall  transmit  the 
same  daily  to  the  general  secretary. 


LIST  OF  MEMBERS.* 


Foreign. 


Aderkas,  Ottocar  d',  The  Russian  Imperial  Charitable  Institutions  of  the 
Empress  Mary,  St.  Petersburg,  Russia. 

Austerbridge,  Miss  I.  R.,  Prince  Edward's  Island. 

Beaton,  Miss  Annie  H.,  Paisley,  Ontario. 

Boos-Jeglier,  Edward,  Director,  School  of  Art  and  Needlework,  Zurich,  Swit- 
zerland. 

Burdett,  Henry  C,  The  Lodg,e,  Porchester  Square,  London,  England. 

Chasseloup  Laubat,  Marquis  de,  51  Avenue  Kleber,  Paris,  France. 

Dupuy,  Rev.  E.  J.,  Maison  Hospitaliere,  Paris,  France. 

Haine,  Stanislas  H.,  Mont  de  Piete,  Antwerp,  Belgium. 

Hart,  Ernest,  Cltairman,  British  National  Health  Society,  429  Strand,  London, 
England. 

Hughes,  Miss  Amy,  Queen  Victoria's  Jubilee  Institute  for  Nurses,  23  Blooms- 
bury  Square,  London,  England. 

Kazarin,  Michael,  The  General  Administration  of  Prisons  of  Russia,  St.  Peters- 
burg, Russia. 

Lamperiere,  Mme.  Anna  Yon,  Interieur  Instruction  Publique,  Commerce  et 
Industrie,  9  Rue  Anice,  Leures,  France. 

Macdowell,  Miss  F.  Louise,  Kingston,  Canada. 

Marshall,  Mme.  Marie,  Oeuvre  des  Libelees  de  St.  Lazare  and  Le  Foyer  Chre- 
tien, Paris,  France. 

Notter,  Lieut.  Colonel  J.  Lane,  M.  U.,  Surgeon-Major,  British  Army,  Netley, 
England. 

Salazar,  Mme.  Fanny  Zampini,  Rome,  Italy. 

Singer,  Prof.  Isidor,  Ph.  U.,  University  of  Vienna,  Austria. 

Spence,  Miss  Catherine  Helen,  Government  Commissioner,  Charity  Organi- 
zation Society,  Adelaide.  South  Australia. 

Van  Geert,  Prosper,  Bureau  de  Bienfaisance,  Antwerp,  Belgium. 

Van  Geert,  Mme.  Prosper,  Antwerp,  Belgium. 

California. 

Cooper,    Miss    Harriet,    Superintendent,  Golden    Gate    Kindergartens,    1902 

Vallejo  St.,  San  Francisco. 
Cooper,  Mrs.  Sarah   B.,  President,  Golden  Gate  Kindergartens,  1902  Vallejo 

St.,  San  Francisco. 
Edholm,  Charlton,  Florence  Crittenton  Heme,  San  Francisco,  Oakland. 

*A  complete  list  can  not  be  furnished,  owing  to  the  failure  of  many  in  actual  attendance  to 
register  their  names  and  addresses. 


MEMBERS.  1 3 

Wallace,  Miss  Elsie,  Superintendent  of  Nurses,  Children's  Hospital,  San  Fran- 
cisco. 
Warner,  Prof.  Amos  G.,  Ph.  U.,  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University,  Palo  Alto. 

Colorado. 

Appel,  Mrs.  J.  M.,  Ladies'  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society,  Denver. 
Appel,  T.  S.,  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  Denver. 
.■\ppel,  Mrs.  J.  S.,  Denver  Free  Kindergarten  Association,  Denver. 
Brodhead,  Rev.  Wm.  H.,  Secretary,  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections, 

Denver. 
Gabriel,  John  H.,  Young  People's  Charity  Club,  Denver. 
George,  Mrs.  Izetta,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Denver. 
Houser,  Mrs.  Bella  S.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Denver. 
Mills,  J.  Warner,  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  Denver. 
Reed,  Rev.  Myron  W.,  State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  Denver. 
Williams,  B.  F.,  Industrial  School,  Golden. 

Connecticut. 
Crothers,  T.  D.,  M.D.,  Superintendent,  Walnut  Lodge  Hospital,  Hartford. 
Knight,   Geo.   H.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  Connecticut  School  for  Imbeciles, 

Lakeville. 
Knight,  Mrs.  Geo.  H.,  Lakeville. 
Stearns,  Dr.  Henry  P.,  Superintendent,  Retreat  for  the  Insane,  Hartford. 

Delaware. 
Clark,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  T.,  Superintendent,  Associated  Charities,  Wilmington. 
Wright,  Mrs.  James  H.,  Associated  Charities,  Wilmington. 

District  of  Columbia. 
Billings,  John  S.,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.,  Surgeon,  United  States  Army,  W^ashington. 
Falls,  A.  J.,  Reform  School  of  District  of  Columbia,  Washington. 
Gatewood,  J.  D.,  M.  D.,  Medical  Department   U.  S.  Navy,  Navy  Department, 

Washington. 
Pope,  Georgina  F.,  Superintendent,  Columbia  Hospital,  Washington. 
Rogers,  Miss  M.,  Children's  Hospital,  Washington. 
Shallenberger,  G.  A.,  Reform  School  of  District  of  Columbia,  Washington. 

Illinois. 
Bagg,  Mrs.  S.  F.,  Reception  Committee,  3764  Lake  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Bartlett,  A.  C,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  Chicago. 
Bath,  Miss  Alice  K.,  901  Jackson  Boulevard,  Chicago. 
Baxter,  Mrs.  T.  W.,  Newsboys'  Home,  343  Dearborn  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Beckwith,  Mrs.  N.   K.,  Nursery    and   Half    Orphan  Asylum,  77    I'ine    Street, 

Chicago. 
Beebe,  Mrs.  L.  A.,  Reception  Committee,  76  Park  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Bemis,  Prof.  E.  W.,  Ph.  D.,  University  of  Chicago,  Chicago. 
Bonney,  Charles  C,  President,  World's  Congress  Auxiliary,  Chicago. 


14      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Bowman,  Miss  Eliza  W.,  Newsboys'  Home,  1418  Wabash  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Breeze,  Miss  Jessie,  Illinois  Training  School  for  Nurses,  691    Monroe  Street, 

Chicago. 
Brown,  Mrs.   Wm.   T.,   Home  for  the    Friendless,  4637   Greenwood   Avenue, 

Chicago. 
Cameron,  Miss  Emma,  Assistant  Superintendent,  Illinois  Training  School  for 

Nurses,  Chicago. 
Cann,  Miss  Irene,  Reception  Committee,  3151  Prairie  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Carpenter,  Mrs.  A.  A.,  Reception  Committee,  83  Cass  Street,  Chicago. 
Chafee,  Mrs.  G.  U,,  Illinois  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Shelbyville. 
Chamberlin,  Mrs.  A.  S.,  Reception  Committee,  186  31st  Street,  Chicago. 
Clowry,  Mrs.  R.  C,  Reception  Committee,  524  Dearborn  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Cofifin,  Chas.  F.,  Chicago. 

Corbus,  Dr.  J.  C,  Board  of  State  Commissioners  of  Public  Charities,  Mendota. 
Cushman,  B.  V.,  Bethesda  Mission,  205  Warren  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Curtiss,  Geo.  W.,  Board  of  State  Commissioners  of  Public  Charities,  Stockton. 
Darrow,  Mrs.  Geo.  W.,  Chicago  Orphan  Asylum,  Glen  Ellyn. 
Dewey,  Richard,  M.  D.,  11 14  Venetian  Building,  Chicago. 
Doering,  Mrs.   Edmund    J.,  Chicago    Orphan    Asylum,  2406    Prairie    Avenue, 

Chicago. 
Doud,  Mrs.  L.  B.,  Erring  Woman's  Refuge,  3257  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Draper,  Miss  Edith,  Illinois  Training  School  for  Nurses,  304  Honore  Street, 

Chicago. 
Dudley,  Mrs.  E.  C,  President,  Visiting  Nurses'  Association,  1619  Indiana  Ave., 

Chicago. 
Dudley,  Oscar  L.,  Superintendent  and    General   Manager,  Illinois   School   of 

Agriculture  and  Manual  Training  for  Boys,  113  Adams  Street,  Chicago. 
Engleman,  Miss  Emma,  Reception  Committee,  649  Cleveland  Ave.,  Chicago. 
Enrich,  Mrs.  E.  F.,  Charity  Council,  Aurora. 

Fairbank,  Mrs.  N.  K.,  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  1801  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Felton,  Chas.  E.,  4206  Lake  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Finley,  John  H.,  Ph.D.,  President,  Knox  College,  Galesburg. 
Fitz  Simons,  Mrs.  Chas.,  Women  and  Children's  Hospital,  161  Ashland  Ave., 

Chicago. 
Flower,  Mrs.  Jas.  M.,  Department  of  Moral  and  Social   Reform,  World's  Con- 
gress Auxiliary,  361  Superior  Street,  Chicago. 
Follansbee,  Mrs,  G.  A.,  Old  People's  Home,  2342  Indiana  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Frake,  Mrs.  James,  Newsboys'   and   Bootblacks'   Home,  625    Fulton    Street, 

Chicago. 
Gait,  Mrs.  Thomas,  Aurora. 
Galvin,   Edw,  I.,  Hyde    Park  Protective    Association,  5725    Madison    Street, 

Chicago. 
Gerry,  Miss  Jennie  E.,  City  Missions,  Snell  Hall,  Chicago. 
Glenn,  Miss  Lizzie  C,  Rockford  Hospital,  Rockford. 
Goodwin,  Daniel,  Illinois  Charitable  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary,  600  North  State 

Street,  Chicago. 


MEMBERS.  15 

Gregg,  Rev.  Frank  M.,  D.  U.,  Children's  Home  Society,  230  La  Salle  Street, 

Chicago. 
Groves,  Mrs.  Denison  F.,  Woman's  Board  of  Waifs'  Missions,  3946  Ellis  Ave., 

Chicago. 
Hancock,  Mrs.  Bradford,  Department  of  Moral   and    Social    Reform,  World's 

Congress  Auxiliary,  iSo  N.  State  Street,  Chicago. 
Harrison,  Mrs.  Ursula  L.,  Illinois  School  of  Agriculture  and  Manual  Training 

for  Boys,  Glenwood. 
Harwood,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  5012  Ellis  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Hemingway,  A.  T.,  Oak  Park. 
Henderson,  Rev.  Chas.  R.,   D.  D.,  Social   Science   Department,  University  of 

Chicago,  6108  Washington  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Henrotin,  Mrs.  Charles,  Vice-President,  Woman's  Branch,  World's  Congress 

Auxiliary,  Chicago. 
Hill,  Mrs.  Thomas  A.,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  2924  Michigan  Ave., Chicago. 
Hobbs,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  343  La  Salle  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Horton,  Miss  Sarah  M.,  Chicago  Orphan  Asylum,  18  Aldine  Square,  Chicago. 
Hotchkin,  Mrs.  C.  M.,  Chicago  Orphan  Asylum,  3006  Prairie  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Howe,  Mrs.  F.  J.,  Half  Orphan  Asylum,  444  Chestnut  Street,  Chicago. 
Huddleston,  Mrs.  G.  W.,  Reception  Committee,  903  Adams  Street,  Chicago. 
Hutchinson,  Miss  Florence  C,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  3145  Indiana  Avenue, 

Chicago. 
Jay,  Mrs.  Milton,  Illinois  School  of  Agriculture  and  Manual  Training  for  Boys, 

2510  Indiana  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Judd,  Mrs.  N.  B.,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  3522  Calumet  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Keep,  Mrs.  Albert,  Home  for  Incurables,  2010  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Kip,  Francis  E.,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  288  Forty-second  Street,  Chicago. 
Kline,  Mrs.  Matilda  E.,  National  Temperance  Hospital,  62  E.  ?"orty-third  St., 

Chicago. 
Laflin,  Mrs.  Geo.  H.,  Chicago  Home  for  the   Friendless,  1614  Michigan  Ave., 

Chicago. 
Lathrop,  Miss  Julia  C,  Board  of  State  Commissioners  of  Public  Charities, 

Rockford ;  resident  of  the  Hull  House,  Chicago. 
Lett,  Miss  K.  L.,  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Chicago. 
Lewis,  Dr.  H.  F.,  Chicago. 
McClaughry,  Major  Robert  W.,  Superintendent,  Illinois  State  Reformatory, 

Pontiac. 
McCullock,  Mrs.  Catherine,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Chicago. 
Mack,  Julian  M.,  United  Hebrew  Charities,  4242  Langley  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Maddell,  Mrs.  Elsie,  Temperance  Hospital,  3232  Rhodes  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Mangasarian,  M.,  Society  for  Ethical  Culture,  Chicago. 
Matz,  Mrs.  Otto  H.,  Chicago  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  431   Oak  St., 

Chicago. 
Meech,  Miss  Marietta,  Illinois  Training  School  for  Nurses,  242    Winchester 

Avenue,  Chicago. 
Millar,  Mrs.  Allen  P.,  Newsboys'  Home,  289  Ontario  Street,  Chicago. 


1 6      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Moore,  U.  T.,  Chicago. 

Nichols,  Charles  K.,  608  W.  Ohio  Street,  Chicago. 

Nichols,  Mrs.  Wm.  C,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  493  Fullerton  Ave.,  Chicago.^ 

Pajeau,  Mrs.  J.,  Home  for  the  Friendless,  4345  Grand  Boulevard,  Chicago. 

Palmer,  Mrs.  Potter,  President,  Woman's  Branch,  World's  Congress  Auxiliary,. 

Chicago. 
Ricker,  Mrs.  Jewett  E.,  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  401    Superior  St., 

Chicago. 
Koler,  Mrs.  E.  C,  T.,  Erring  Woman's  Refuge,  Lexington  Hotel,  Chicago. 
Rosenfeld,  Mrs.  Maurice,  Visiting  Nurses,  1620  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Ryerson,  Arthur,  President,  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Chicago. 
Shortall,  John  G.,  Illinois  Humane  Society,  1600  Prairie  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Orson,  41  Bellevue  Place,  Chicago. 
Stone,  Miss  Jessie  G.,  Chicago  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  620   West 

Monroe  Street,  Chicago. 
Stone,  Mrs.  Leander,  President,  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  3352- 

Indiana  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Strong,  Rev.  John  M.,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Waukegan. 
Sumption,  Miss  Martha  A.,  Chicago   Hospital  for  Women  and   Children,  620- 

W.  Monroe  Street,  Chicago. 
Taylor,  Rev.  Graham,  D.  D.,  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  Chicago. 
Taylor,  Miss  Winnie  Louise,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Freeport. 
Thatcher,  Mrs.  Watson,  National  Temperance   Hospital,  787  Walnut  Street, 

Chicago. 
Tolman,  Mrs.  S.  A.,  Old  People's  Home,  2031  Prairie  Avenue,  Chicago. 
True,  Miss  M.  E.,  320  Marshfield  Avenue,  Chicago, 
Trusdell,  Rev.  C.  G.,  Superintendent,  Chicago  Relief  and  Aid  Society,  51-53 

La  Salle  Street,  Chicago. 
Tyrrell,  Miss  A.  M.,  Illinois  Training  School  for  Nurses,  6345  Stewart  Avenue,. 

Chicago. 
Ullman,  Mrs.  Frederic,  282  Forty-eighth  Street,  Chicago. 
Vincent,  Miss  Sarah  J,,  242  Winchester  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Visher,  John,  Secretary,  Illinois  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  1037 

Mead  Street,  Chicago. 
Walker,  Mrs.  Edwin,  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  2612  Michigan  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Walker,  Mrs.  J.  M.,  1720  Prairie  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Wheeler,  Mrs.  C.  Gilbert,  The  Lexington,  Chicago. 

White,  Mrs.  Wm.  R,,  Presbyterian  Hospital,  263  Warren  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Willard,  Miss  Laura,  5555  Woodlawn  Avenue,  Chicago. 
Wilmarth,  Mrs.  H.  M.,  Auditorium  Hotel,  Chicago. 
Wines,  Rev.  Frederick  Howard,  LL.  D.,  Springfield. 

Indiana. 

Bicknell,  Ernest  P.,  Secretary  elect,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Indianapolis. 
Guild,  Mrs.  Helen  F.,  President,  Fort  Wayne  Relief  Union,  Fort  Wayne. 
Hathaway,  Miss  Sarah,  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Indiana,  Mishawaka. 


MEMBERS. 


17 


Johnson,  Alexander,  Secretary  retiring,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Indianapolis. 

Johnson,  Miss  Katherine  D.,  Clerk,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Indianapolis. 

Kittring,  Mrs.  E.  G.,  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Indiana,  South  Bend. 

Peele,  Mrs.  Margaret  F.,  Board  of  State  Charities,  South  Bend. 

Reeve,  Chas.  H.,  Plymouth. 

Smith,  Mrs.  C.  L.,  Hope  Hospital,  Fort  Wayne. 

Smith,  James,  General  Secretary,  Charity  Organization   Society,  Indianapolis. 

Snyder,  Katherine  S.,  M.  D.,  Southern  Hospital  for  Insane,  Evansville. 

Wardner,  Mrs.  Louise  Rockwood,  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Laporte. 

Iowa. 

Ayres,  Miss  J.  G.,  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  Stuart. 

Carleton,  Mrs.  M.  J.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Burlington. 

Gatchel,  Theodore,  Iowa  Humane  Society,  Des  Moines. 

Hoover,  Rev.  Geo.  K,,  Iowa  Children's  Home  Society,  Davenport. 

Howard,  Mrs.  Nettie  F.,  Associated  Charities,  Davenport. 

Millard,  Mrs.  F.  A.,  Assistant  Secretary,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Bur- 
lington. 

Powell,  F.  M.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  State  Institution  for  Feeble-minded 
Children,  Glenwood. 

Putnam,  Mrs.  M.  L.  D.,  Davenport. 

Starr,  Miss  M.  E.,  Secretary,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Burlington. 

Kansas. 

Eastman,  B.  D.,M.  D.,  Superintendent,  State  Insane  Asylum,  Topeka. 

Faulkner,  Chas.  E.,  Superintendent,  Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Orphans'  Home^ 
Atchison. 

Hausholder,  M.  A.,  State  Board  of  Trustees  of  Charitable  Institutions, 
Columbus. 

Kelly,  H.  B.,  State  Board  of  Trustees  of  Charitable  Institutions,  Lawrence. 

Lease,  Mrs.  Mary  E.,  President,  State  Board  of  Trustees  of  Charitable  Institu- 
tions, Wichita. 

Martin,  Miss  Edith  M.,  Ottawa. 

Pilcher,  F.  Hoyt,  M.  D.,  School  for  Feeble-minded,  Winfield. 

Spencer,  Martha  S.,  State  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Beloit. 

Wait,  W.  S.,  State  Board  of  Trustees  of  Charitable  Institutions,  Lincoln. 

Wentworth,  L.  F.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  State  Insane  Asylum,  Osawatomie. 

Yoe,  W.  T.,  State  Board  of  Trustees  of  Charitable  Institutions,  Independence. 

Kentucky. 

Avery,  Mrs.  Susan  Look,  Women's  Club,  Louisville. 

McKechvine,  Miss  Mary  W.,  Louisville  Training  School  for  Nurses,  Louisville. 

Wilson,  Laura  A.,  Children's  Free  Hospital,  220  E.  Chestnut  St.,  Louisville. 

Louisiana. 
Heymann,  Michel,  Jewish  Orphans'  Home,  New  Orleans. 


1 8       INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Maine. 
Burrington,  Mrs.  E.  A.  D.,  Belfast. 
Stevens,  Mrs.  L.  M.  N.,  Girls'  Industrial  School,  Portland. 

Maryland. 

Boland,  Miss  Mary  A.,  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore. 
-'   Brackett,  Jeffrey  R.,  Ph.  D.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  210  West  Madison 
Street,  Baltimore. 
Dock,  Miss  L.  L.,  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore. 
^^Glenn,  John  M.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  12  St.  Paul  Street,  Baltimore. 
Hall,  A.  Cleveland,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Baltimore,  and  Bureau   of 

Charities  and  Correction,  World's  Columbian  Exposition. 
Hampton,  Miss  Isabel  A.,  Superintendent,  Johns  Hopkins  Training  School  for 

Nurses,  Baltimore. 
Hard,  Henry  M.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Baltimore. 
^^N^Richmond,  Miss  Mary  E,,   General  Secretary,  Charity  Organization  Society, 
Baltimore. 
Stoner,  George  W.,  M.  D.,  United  States  Marine  Hospital  Service,  Baltimore. 

Massachusetts. 

Ames,  Miss  Lucia  T.,  Associated  Charities,  28  St.  James  Ave.,  Boston. 

Balch,  Miss  Emily  Greene,  Denison  House  and  Gwynne  Temporary  House 
for  Children,  Jamaica  Plain. 

Birtwell,  Charles  W.,  General  Secretary,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Boston. 

Birtwell,  Miss  Frances  M.,  Boston  Children's  Aid  Society,  Cambridgeport. 

Birtwell,  Miss  Mary  L. ,  Associated  Charities,  Boston. 

Bright,  Miss  Emily  H.,  Boston  Associated  Charities,  Cambridge. 

Carolin,  Wm.  T.,  M.  D.,  Trustee,  State  Farm  and  State  Almshouse,  Lowell. 

Chapin,  Miss  Mabel  H.,  Brookline. 

Crawford,  Mrs.  Sarah  M.,  M.  D.,  Department  of  Outdoor  Poor  of  State  Board 
of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  Boston. 

Curran,  Dr.  Charles  J.,  State  Boerd  of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  North  Adams. 

Dawes,  Miss  Anna  L.,  Home-Work  Association,  Pittsfield. 

Dow,  Miss  Helen,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Boston. 

Durham,  Miss  Elizabeth  P.,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Boston. 

Fernald,  Walter  E.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  State  School  for  Feeble-minded, 
Waverley. 

Fiske,  Mrs.  Frances,  Sloyd  Industrial  Work,  Boston. 

Frenyear,  Miss  Myra  G.,  Associated  Charities,  Boston. 

Hitchcock,  Edward,  M.  D.,  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  Amherst  Col- 
lege. 

Jackson,  Miss  Anna  P.,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Boston. 

Johnson,  Mrs.  Ellen  C,  Superintendent,  Reformatory  for  Women,  South  Fram- 
ingham. 

Johnson,  Geo.  W.,  Chairman,  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  Brookfield. 

Lee,  Miss  Alice,  Boston. 


MEMBERS.  19 

Lee,  Joseph,  Secretary,  Massachusetts  Committee  on  Charities  and  Correc- 
tion, World's  Fair. 

Page,  Charles  W.,  Danvers  Lunatic  Hospital,  Danvers. 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  President,  Associated  Charities,  Boston. 

Parker,  Miss  Sarah,  Roxbury. 

Peabody,  Rev.  Francis  G.,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Christian  Ethics,  Harvard  Col- 
lege, Cambridge. 

Pickering,  Henry  G.,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Boston. 

Pratt,  Laban,  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  Boston. 

Prescott,  Miss  Josephine  F.,  Children's  Aid  Society,  Boston. 

Putnam,  Miss  Elizabeth  C,  Trustee,  State  Primary  and  Reform  Schools,  63 
Marlborough  Street,  Boston. 

Raymond,  Miss  Sarah  E.,  Boston  Associated  Charities,  Charlestown. 

Richardson,  Mrs.  Anne  B.,  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  Lowell. 

Rogers,  Miss  Annette  P.,  Overseer  of  the  Poor,  Boston. 

Rowe,  G.  H.  M.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  City  Hospital,  Boston. 

Shurtleff,  Hiram  S.,  Superintendent  of  Outdoor  Poor,  State  Board  of  Lunacy 
and  Charity,  Boston. 

Smith,  Miss  Frances  A.,  Associated  Charities,  Boston. 

Smith,  Miss  Zilpha  D.,  General  Secretary,  Associated  Charities,  Boston. 

Somerville,  C.  E.  j\L,  District  Nursing  Association,  Lawrence. 

Spinney,  Frank  C,  Boston  Associated  Charities,  Lynn. 

Stone,  Col.  Henry,  State  Board  of  Lunacy  and  Charity,  Boston. 

Swanton,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  District  Nursing  Association,  Brookline. 

Todd,  Miss  Hannah  M.,  Probation  Officer,  Municipal  Court,  Boston. 

Todd,  Miss  Myra  M.,  Lynn. 

Wheaton,  Miss  Florence,  Boston  Associated  Charities,  Roxbury. 

Wheeler,  Walter  A.,  State  Primary  School,  Palmer. 

Wheeler,  Mrs.  Walter  A.,  State  Primary  School,  Palmer. 

Whitman,  Mrs.  Bernard,  Lend-a-Hand  Club,  Boston. 

Woods,  Robert  A.,  Andover  House,  6  Rollins  Street,  Boston. 

Michigan. 

Barbour,  Levi  L.,  661  Woodward  Avenue,  Detroit. 

Bell,  Samuel,  M.  D.,  State  Board  of  Corrections  and  Charities,  87  State  Street, 
Detroit. 

Crozier,  Alfred  O.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Grand  Rapids. 

D'Arcambal,  Mrs.  Agnes  L.,  Superintendent,  Home  of  Industry  for  Discharged 
Prisoners,  250  Willis  Avenue,  Detroit. 

Dewing,  Mrs.  J.  A.,  Dewing's  Children's  Home,  Kalamazoo. 

Hinchman,  Theo.  H.,  Industrial  Home  for  Girls,  Detroit. 

Hauber,  Carl,  Muskegon. 

Mott,  Mrs.  H.  C,  W.  C.  T.  U.  Prison  Work,  Muskegon  Heights. 

Randall,  C.  D.,  State  Public  School,  Coldwater. 

Sickels,  Mrs.  Lucy  M.,  Industrial  Home  for  Girls,  Adrian. 

Storrs,  Lucius  C,  Secretary,  State  Board  of  Corrections  and  Charities,  Lan- 
sing. 


20      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Minnesota. 

Amundson,  C,  State  Board  of  Corrections  and  Charities,  St.  Peter. 
Cowie,  G.  G.,  Clerk,  State  Board  of  Corrections  and  Charities,  St.  Paul. 
Hart,  Rev.  Hastings  H.,  Secretary,  State  Board  of  Corrections  and  Charities, 

St.  Paul. 
Hart,  Mrs.  H.  H.,  St.  Paul. 

Holt,  Geo.  U.,  Secretary,  Associated  Charities,  Minneapolis. 
Jackson,  Jas.  F.,  General  Secretary,  Associated  Charities,  139  E.  University 

Ave.,  St.  Paul. 
Merrill,  G.  A.,  State  Public  School  for  Dependent  Children,  Owatonna. 
Norrish,  John  F.,  State  Prison,  Hastings. 
Rogers,  A.  C,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  Minnesota  School  for  Feeble-minded, 

Faribault. 
Wolfer,  Henry,  Warden,  State  Prison,  Stillwater. 

Missouri. 

Finney,  Rev.  Thos.  M.,  General  Manager,  Provident  Association,  4028  Morgan 

•    Street,  St.  Louis. 

Harrison,  Edwin,  3747  Westminster  Place,  St.  Louis. 

Harrison,  Mrs.  Edwin,  Episcopal  Orphans'   Home,  3747  Westminster  Place, 

St.  Louis. 
Moore,  Mrs.  Catti,  Kansas  City. 
Rice,  Miss  Josephine  B.,  St.  Louis  Protestant  Hospital,   ion  N.    Eighteenth 

Street,  St.  Louis. 
Sibley,  Miss  Elizabeth  M.,  St.  Louis  Protestant  Hospital,  ion   N.  Eighteenth 

Street,  St.  Louis. 
Springer,  Mrs.  C.  R.,  Women's  Charities  Association,  St.  Louis. 

Nebraska. 

Bates,  Mrs.  Laura  A.,  Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Home,  Aurora. 

Clark,  A.  W.,  Assistant  Secretary,  Associated  Charities,  Omaha. 

Clark,  Mrs.  G.  W.,  "Open  Door,"  Omaha. 

Laughland,  John,  Associated  Charities,  807  Howard  Street,  Omaha.- 

Mallalieu,  John  T.,  Superintendent,  State  Industrial  School  for  Boys,  Kearney. 

Woods,  Albert  F.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Lincoln. 

New  Jersey. 

Dunlap,  Mary  J.,  M.  D.,  State  Institute  for  Feeble-minded  Women,  Vineland. 
Gile,  Mrs.  F.  A.,  State  Institute  for  Feeble-minded  Women,  East  Orange. 
Maddock,  Geo.  C,  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Trenton. 
Otterson,  Ira,  Superintendent,  State  Reform  School,  Jamesburg. 
Van  Meter,  Miss  Anna  H.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Salem. 
W^arman,  David,  M.  D. ,  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  Trenton. 
Williamson,  Mrs.  Benjamin,  Secretary,  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  Eliza- 
beth. 


MEMBERS.  21 

New  York. 
Adler,  Dr.  Felix,  New  York. 

Anthony,  Miss  Susan  B.,  Western  New  York  Industrial  School,  Rochester. 
Belts,  Miss  Laura  A.,  Homeopathic  Hospital,  109  Cumberland  St.,  Brooklyn. 
Bliss,  Rev.  Howard  S.,  Plymouth  Church,  51  William  Street,  Brooklyn. 
Blumer,  G.  Alder,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  State  Hospital  for  Insane,  Utica. 
Bunn,  Rev.  Albert  Carrier,  M.  D,,  The  Church  Charity  Fomidation  of  Long 

Island,  464  Herkimer  Street,  Brooklyn. 
Caldwell,  Miss  Louise  T.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  New  York. 
Gary,  Mrs.  E.  M.  L.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Buffalo. 
Cary,  Thomas,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Buffalo. 
Craig,  Oscar,  President,  State  Board  of  Charities,  Rochester. 
Darche,  Miss  Louise,  Superintendent,  New  York    City  Training    School  for 

Nurses,  Nurses'  Home,  Blackwell's  Island,  New  York, 
Davenport,  Mrs.  John,  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  Bath. 
DeForest,  Robert  W.,  President,  Charity  Organization  Society,  62    William 

Street,  New  York. 
Dennis,  Caroline  E.,  Auburn  City  Hospital,  Auburn. 
Folks,  Homer,  Secretary,  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  105  E.  22d  St.,  New 

York. 
Fullerton,  Mrs.  Marietta,  Association  for  Improving  Condition  of  the  Poor, 

New  York. 
Gladding,  Agnes  S.,  City  Hospital,  Auburn. 
Hepner,  Elizabeth  R.,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Lockport. 
lies,  George,  Secretary,  Society  of  Political  Education,  New  York. 
Kellogg,  Chas.  D.,  General  Secretary,  Charity  Organization  Society,   105  E, 

22d  Street,  New  York. 
Kellogg,  Mrs.  Chas.  D.,New  York. 

Lathrop,  Jas.  R.,  Roosevelt  Hospital,  59th  St.  and  9th  Ave.,  New  York. 
Lewis,  Charlton  T.,  President,  New  York  State  Prison  Association,  34  Nassau 

St.,  New  York. 
Lov«,  Miss  Maria  M.,  Fitch  Creche,  Buffalo. 

Mayo-Smith,  Prof.  Richmond,  Ph.  D.,  Columbia  College,  New  York. 
Merchant,    Mrs.   G.  A.,  Charity  Organization    Society,    413  Auburn  Avenue, 

Buffalo. 
Moore,  Miss  Alice,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Buffalo. 
Moore,  Miss  Marion  J,,  Assistant  Secretary,  Charity  Organization   Society, 

Buffalo. 
Ormsby,  Mrs.  Mary  Frost,  St.  Michael's  Church,  1 15  W.  96th  Street,  New  York. 
Paton,  John,  President,  Association  for  Improving  Condition  of  the  Poor,  New 

York. 
Pughe,  Rees  P.,  State  Hospital  for  Insane,  Utica. 
Rosenau,  Nathaniel  S.,  Superintendent,  Bureau  of  Charities  and  Correction, 

World's  Columbian  Exposition,  Fitch  Institute,*Buffa]o. 
Round,  W.  M.  F.,  Director,  Burnham  Industrial   Farm,  135  E.  15th  St.,  New 

York. 
Savage,  Charles  C,  Roosevelt  Hospital,  133  E,  29th  St.,  New  York. 


22      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Schuyler,  Miss  Louisa  Lee,  State  Ciiarities  Aid  Association,  19  W.  31st  St., 

New  York. 
Sutliffe,  Miss  Irene  H.,  Directress  of  Nurses,  New  York  Hospital,  New  York. 
Smith,  T.  Guilford,  Charity  Organization  Society,  Buffalo. 
Wald,  Miss  Lillian  D.,  New  York  Hospital,  Rochester. 
Wells,  Miss  Mary  E.,  Homeopathic  Training  School  for  Nurses,  Brooklyn. 
Wilcox,  Ansley,  Charity  Organization  Society,  White  Building,  Buffalo. 

Ohio. 
Ayres,  Philip  W.,  General  Secretary,  Associated  Charities,  45  E.  Fifth  Street, 

Cincinnati. 
Behrens,  Henry,  Director,  House  of  Refuge,  Cincinnati. 
Brinkerhoff,  Gen.  Roeliff,  President,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Mansfield. 
Byers,  Joseph  P.,  Secretary,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Columbus. 
Grouse,  Meigs  V.,  Superintendent,  Children's  Home,  Cincinnati. 
Grouse,  Mrs.  M.  V.,  Children's  Home,  Cincinnati. 
Dalton,  James,  Director,  House  of  Refuge,  Cincinnati. 

Eyman,  H.  C,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  Cleveland  Asylum  for  Insane,  Cleveland. 
Follett,  M.  D.,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Marietta. 
Fulton,  Levi  T.,  Superintendent,  House  of  Refuge,  Cincinnati. 
Gano,  Mrs.  John  A.,  Cincinnati. 
Gladden,  Rev.  Washington,  D.  D.,  Columbus. 
Greenwood,  Miss  M.  Hamer,  Jewish  Hospital,  Cincinnati. 
Hathaway,  S.  J.,  Superintendent,  Children's  Home,  Marietta. 
Johnston,  Miss  Sara  F.,  Lawrence  County  Children's  Home,  Ironton. 
McDougall,  A.  W.,  Associated  Charities,  Cincinnati. 
Morse,  Miss  E.  M.,  Associated  Charities,  Cincinnati. 
Neff,  Wm.  Howard,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Cincinnati. 
Niesz,  Mrs.  J.  K.,  Children's  Home,  Toledo. 
Parrott,  Charles,  Board  of  State  Charities,  Columbus. 
Peek,  Mrs.  Sarah  O.,  Superintendent,  The  Retreat,  Cleveland. 
Richardson,    A.    B.,   M.  D.,    Superintendent,    Columbus   Asylum    for    Insane, 

Columbus. 
Tobey,  H.  A.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  Toledo  Asylum  for  Insane,  Toledo. 
Waterton,  Mrs.   R.    T.,   County    Visitor,   County  Jail    and    Infirmary,    South 

Newbury. 
Webb,  John,  Jr.,  Director,  House  of  Refuge,  Cincinnati. 

Oregon. 

Rowland,  L.  L.,  M.  D.,  Superintendent,  State  Hospital  for  Insane,  Salem. 
Walpole,  William  R.,  Secretary,  City  Board  of  Charities,  Portland. 

Pennsylvania. 
Crabtree,  Miss  Hezzie  T.,  Philadelphia  Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
Davis,  Miss    E.  P.,  Superintendent    of    Nurses,   University  of    Pennsylvania 
Hospital,  Philadelphia. 


MEMBERS.  23 

Donnell,  Chas.  G.,  Allegheny  County  Poorhouse,  Pittsburgh. 

Milligan,  Rev.  John  L,,  Secretary,  National  Prison  Association,  Allegheny. 

Walk,  James  W.,  M.  U.,  Department  of  Charities  and  Correction  ;  Secretary, 

Society  for  Organizing  Charity,  Philadelphia. 
Wilmarth,  A.  W.,  M.  D.,  Norristown. 
Wright,  Edward  S.,  Warden,  Western  Penitentiary,  Allegheny. 

Rhode  Island. 

Andrews,  E.  Benjamin,  LL.  D.,  President,  Brown  University,  Providence. 
Nutting,  Rev.  James  H.,  Board  of  State  Charities  and  Corrections,  Howard. 
Spencer,  Rev.  Anna  Garlin,  Board  of  Control  of  State  Home  and  School  for 

Dependent  Children,  Providence. 
Wilson,  Prof.  George  G.,  Ph.D.,  Brown  University,  Providence. 
Woods,  J.  C.  B.,  Board  of  State  Charities  and  Corrections,  Providence. 

Tennessee. 
Sims,  P.  D.,  M.  D.,  State  Board  of  Health,  Chattanooga. 

Texas. 
Hayes,  Mrs.  R.  H.,  Galveston. 

Utah. 
Wells,  Mrs.  Emeline  B.,  National  Woman's  Relief  Society,  Salt  Lake  City. 

Washington. 
Bale,  Geo.  A.,  Gig  Harbor. 

Wisconsin. 

Bannister,  Miss  Lucy  A.,  Wisconsin  School  for  Nurses,  Milwaukee. 
Chenneworth,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  Woman's  Club  of  Philanthropy,  Madison. 
Cleary,  J.  L.,  M.  D.,  State  Board  of  Control  of  Reformatory,  Charitable  and 

Penal  Institutions,  Kenosha. 
Graebner,  W.   H.,  State   Board    of    Control  of    Reformatory,  Charitable  and 

Penal  Institutions,  Milwaukee. 
Jones,  J.  E.,  President,  State  Board  of  Control  of  Reformatory,  Charitable  and 

Penal  Institutions,  Portage. 
Lynde,  Mrs.  Wm.  P.,  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  Milwaukee. 
Oliver,  J.  W.,  State   Board  of  Control  of  Reformatory,  Charitable  and  Penal 

Institutions,  Waupun. 
Parker,  C.  D.,  State  Board  of  Control  of  Reformatory,  Charitable  and  Penal 

Institutions,  River  Falls. 
Roberts,  W.  P.,  American  Invalid  Aid  Society,  Evansville. 
Snyder,    Clarence,  State  Board    of   Control  of    Reformatory,  Charitable  and 

Penal  Institutions,  Ashland. 
Wilkins,  Frederick,  Chairman,  Knights  of  Labor. 
Wright,  A.  O.,  Wisconsin  Veterans'  Home,  Madison. 


PREFACE. 


The  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Correction  and  Philan- 
thropy, at  Chicago,  in  1893,  was  the  indirect  result  of  the  congress 
held  at  Paris  in  1889,  concerning  which  a  report  was  made  by  Miss 
Elizabeth  C.  Putnam  at  Baltimore,  in  1890.  The  Paris  congress 
expressed  a  desire  that  the  Americans  would  organize  a  similar  con- 
ference of  charity  workers  in  connection  with  the  Columbian  Expo- 
sition. Accordingly,  at  Baltimore,  the  Reverend  Charles  G.  Trus- 
dell,  secretary  of  the  Chicago  Relief  and  Aid  Society  and  president 
of  the  Illinois  Board  of  State  Commissioners  of  Public  Charities, 
extended  an  invitation  to  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  on  behalf  of  the  state  of  Illinois  and  the  city  of  Chicago, 
to  hold  its  twentieth  session  in  Chicago  in  1893.  This  invitation  was 
accepted.  On  motion  of  Dr.  Wines,  a  special  committee  of  fifteen  was 
appointed  to  lay  before  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the  Exposition  a 
project  for  the  organization  of  such  a  congress,  and  for  an  inter- 
national exhibit  of  charities  and  correction  in  connection  with  it.* 
This  committee  was  not  called  together,  but  conducted  its  work  by 
correspondence  through  its  chairman,  Mr.  Trusdell,  who  secured 
from  General  George  R.  Davis,  director-general  of  the  Exposition, 
and  from  Mr.  C.  C.  Bonney,  president  of  the  World's  Congress 
Auxiliary,  promises  of  cordial  co-operation  and  aid  in  the  effort  to 
organize  both  the  congress  and  the  exhibit. 

At  Indianapolis,  in  1891,  letters  of  invitation  addressed  to  Rev. 
Oscar  C.  McCulloch,  president  of  the  Conference,  by  Messrs.  Davis 
and  Bonney,  were  read  and  a  new  committee  of  nine  was  appointed, 

*  The  following  gentlemen  were  appointed  members  of  the  committee  :  Rev. 
C.  G.  Trusdell,  Chicago ;  George  S.  Hale,  Boston;  Oscar  Craig,  Rochester, 
N.  Y.  ;  James  W.  Walk,  M.  D.,  Philadelphia  ;  John  Glenn,  Baltimore  ;  Gen. 
Roeliff  Brinkerhoff,  Mansfield,  Ohio  ;  John  K.  Elder,  Indianapolis;  Levi  L. 
Barbour,  Detroit;  Andrew  E.  Elmore,  Fort  Howard,  Wisconsin;  D.  C.  Bell, 
Minneapolis;  Rev.  Myron  W.  Reed,  Denver;  H.  O.  Nelson,  St.  Louis;  A.  S. 
Colyer,  Nashville,  Tennessee  ;  Benjamin  E.  McCulloch,  Texas.  (See  Pro- 
ceedings 17th  National  Conference,  Baltimore,  pp.  360,  432,  450.) 


26      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

to  continue  for  two  years,  empowered  to  arrange  for  both  the  con- 
gress and  the  exhibit,  and  to  take  any  action  necessary  to  that  end.* 
This  committee  met  in  Chicago  in  1892,  and  submitted  a  report  to 
the  National  Conference  at  Denver.t  The  committee  elected  Mr. 
Nathaniel  S.  Rosenau  secretary,  and  secured  his  appointment  by 
Director-general  Davis  as  superintendent  of  the  bureau  of  charities 
and  correction,  under  Dr.  S.  H.  Peabody,  chief  of  the  department  of 
liberal  arts,  to  organize  the  exhibit,  and  as  secretary  of  the  executive 
committee  named,  under  authority  of  the  World's  Congress  Aux- 
iliary, to  organize  the  congress. J 

The  exhibit  was  only  a  partial  success.  But  for  any  disappoint- 
ment which  may  have  been  felt  by  any  person  on  this  account,  it  is 
due  to  Mr.  Rosenau  to  say  that  he  was  not  to  blame.  Many 
exhibits  were  promised  which  were  not  furnished.  The  foreign 
charitable  and  correctional  exhibits  were  nearly  all  shown  in  connec- 
tion with  the  general  displays  made  by  the  nations  which  sent  them 
to  Chicago.  The  time  allowed  for  preparation  was  insufficient,  and 
no  one  was  sent  to  Europe,  as  had  been  planned,  to  make  the  proper 
representation  as  to  the  importance  of  this  undertaking,  which  was 
not  fully  appreciated  by  Mr.  Rosenau's  superior  officers.  There  was 
also  great  delay  in  providing  a  suitable  place  (in  the  Anthropological 
Building)  for  the  collection.  Nevertheless,  the  showing  was,  on  the 
whole,  and  as  a  beginning — a  precedent  for  future  imitation  on  a 
larger  scale — by  no  means  discreditable,  and  it  attracted  a  large  share 
of  popular  attention.  Mr.  A.  Cleveland  Hall,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  ably  assisted  Mr.  Rosenau  in  explaining  it  to  visitors, 
many  of  whom  took  copious  notes.     The  main  exhibits,  or  many  of 

*  This  committee  was  composed  as  follows :  Rev.  Frederick  H.  Wines, 
LL.  D.,  of  Illinois;  Rev.  Hastings  H.  Hart,  of  Minnesota;  Lucius  C.  Storrs, 
of  Michigan  ;  Frank  B.  Sanborn,  of  Massachusetts  ;  Andrew  E.  Elmore,  of 
Wisconsin;  Gen.  Roeliff  Brinkerhoff,  of  Ohio;  Oscar  Craig,  of  New  York ; 
John  M.  Glenn,  of  Maryland;  Rev.  Oscar  C.  McCulloch,  of  Indiana.  (See 
Proceedings  i8th  Conference,  Indianapolis,  pp.  349-352.) 

j  See  Proceedings,  pp.  367-374. 

J  This  executive  committee  was  made  up  of  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
of  nine  above  referred  to,  Dr.  Wines  ;  the  chairman  of  the  men's  committee  of 
the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary  on  Moral  and  Social  Reform  Congresses,  Mr. 
John  G.  Shortall,  of  Chicago;  and  the  chairman  of  the  women's  committee 
of  the  same,  Mrs.  James  M.  Flower,  also  of  Chicago.  The  executive  committee 
had  entire  and  exclusive  charge  of  all  arrangements  for  the  congress,  subject 
to  the  approval  of  Mr.  Bonney. 


PREFACE.  27 

them,  were  ultimately  given  to  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  at 
Baltimore,  as  the  nucleus  of  a  sociological  laboratory  of  practical 
charities  and  correction. 

The  Denver  Conference  decided  noc  to  merge  the  National  Con- 
ference into  the  International  Congress,  but  to  hold  a  separate 
(historical)  session  in  Chicago  during  the  vi'eek  preceding  that  fixed 
for  the  congress,  of  which  the  Reverend  Hastings  H.  Hart,  of  St. 
Paul,  secretary  of  the  Minnesota  State  Board  of  Corrections  and 
Charities,  was  president. 

The  International  Congress  assembled  in  the  Hall  of  Columbus, 
in  the  Art  Institute,  under  the  auspices  of  the  World's  Congress 
Auxiliary,  on  the  morning  of  Monday,  June  12,  1893,  ^"^  adjourned 
on  the  evening  of  Sunday,  June  18.  The  executive  committee 
arranged  the  general  programme,*  and  named  the  chairmen  and 
secretaries  of  the  sections.!  The  latter  had  sole  control  of  the  work 
of  their  respective  sections,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  executive 
committee,  including  the  selection  of  questions  for  consideration  and 
of  speakers  and  writers.  The  actual  work  of  the  congress  was  there- 
fore wholly  prepared  by  them,  and  they  should  have  the  credit 
which  properly  belongs  to  them. 

The  attendance  from  abroad  was  not  large,  but  the  papers 
furnished  for  publication  were  numerous  and  valuable.  The  number 
of  Americans  present  was  probably  about  eight  hundred.  Not  all 
of  them  were  registered.  The  Art  Institute,  during  the  continuance 
of  the  congress,  presented  the  appearance  of  a  university,  with 
classes  and  lecturers  scattered  all  through  the  building  ;  and  the 
counter  attractions  at  Jackson  Park  drew  away  but  few  from  the 
serious  business  on  hand.  No  time  was  spent  in  social  diversion  and 
festivity,  though  grateful  mention  should  be  made  of  the  receptions 
by  the  local  committee,  composed  of  the  members  of  the  Committees 
on  Moral  and  Social  Reform  and  representatives  of  the  charitable 
societies  and  institutions  of  Chicago.  One  of  these  was  held  at  the 
Art  Institute  on  Monday  ;  the  other  on  Thursday  afternoon  at  Mrs. 
Samuel  M.  Nickerson's,  who  kindly  tendered  her  house  to  the  com- 
mittee for  the  entertainment  of  the  members  of  the  Congress. 

The  joy  of  the  occasion  was  marred  by  the  death  of  General 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  ex-President  of  the  United  States,  who  had 

*  For  a  copy  of  the  programme  see  pages  8  and  9  of  the  present  volume 
The  rules  governing  the  congress  are  printed  on  pages  9-1 1. 
tSee  list  on  pages  6  and  7. 


28       INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

consented  to  preside  over  this  congress,  but  was  prevented  by  death. 
In  his  absence,  Dr.  Wines,  the  vice-president,  took  his  place. 

The  pubhcation  of  the  proceedings  was  entrusted  to  a  committee 
of  two,  consisting  of  Dr.  Wines  and   Mr.  John  M.  Glenn.     They 
have  been  printed  in  five  volumes,  of  which  this  is  the  first,  as  follows  : 
I.    The  Picblic  Treatment  of  Pauperism. 
II.    The  Organization  of  Charities. 

III.  Dependeiit,  Neglected  and  Wayward  Children.  Sociology 
in  Institutions  of  Learning . 

IV.  The  Insane.      The  Feeble-minded.     Crime  and  Criminals. 
V.  Hospitals,  Dispensaries  and  Nursing. 

It  is  believed  that,  informal  as  the  organization  and  proceedings  of 
this  congress  were,  no  international  congress  ever  held  has  covered 
a  wider  range  of  topics  nor  discussed  the  questions  before  it  in  a 
more  practical  and  utilitarian  spirit. 

No  attempt  was  made  in  the  direction  of  a  permanent  organization 
of  the  movement;  but  Americans  are  ready  to  co-operate  with  their 
European  collaborators  for  the  establishment  of  an  international 
society  for  the  free  and  independent  study  of  all  the  forms  of  chari- 
table and  correctional  work,  and  of  the  results  attained  under  each 
of  them,  whenever  in  their  judgment  the  time  shall  come  when  such 
an  organization  is  practicable  and  can  be  made  effective. 

The  American  plan  is  not  to  formulate  conclusions,  as  is  customary 
abroad  ;  but  to  present  the  arguments  advanced  on  both  sides  of 
every  question  and  leave  to  individuals  the  task  of  passing  upon  their 
relative  weight  and  importance.  This  prevents  division  and  the 
formation  of  parties.  It  leads  to  a  freer  discussion.  No  proposition 
can  fully  or  fairly  state  the  substance  of  the  debate  or  the  sense  of 
the  body  ;  and  it  is  not  believed  that  the  dogmatic  statement  of 
points  upon  which  there  is  a  more  or  less  general  agreement  has  any 
special  influence  upon  public  opinion,  particularly  where  the  propo- 
sitions put  forth  are  in  the  nature  of  a  compromise,  as  is  apt  to  be 
the  case.  Such  propositions  tend  to  grow  into  a  creed  and  to  exert 
an  influence  prejudicial  to  freedom  of  thought  and  breadth  of  argu- 
ment. For  these  reasons  the  reader  who  looks  for  a  deliverance  on 
the  part  of  the  congress  will  search  for  it  in  vain. 


GENERAL  EXERCISES. 


OPENING  SESSION. 
Monday,  June  12,  1893,  10  a.  m. 

The  World's  Auxiliary  Congress  of  the  Department  of  Moral 
and  Social  Reform  convened  at  10  o'clock. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  J.  G.  Johnson  invoked  the  divine  blessing. 

President  C.  C.  Bonney. — We  have  assembled  to  open  the  fifth 
series  of  the  World's  Congresses  of  1893.  The  truest  measure  of 
the  progress  of  the  age  is  the  development  of  what  is  known  as 
Moral  and  Social  Reform.  Antagonizing  the  fierce  strife  of  selfish- 
ness for  wealth  and  power,  it  offers  as  a  substitute,  to  enlighten  man- 
kind, a  generous  service  of  the  wants  and  welfare  of  others.  Moral 
and  social  reform  follows  with  the  white  flag  of  purity  and  peace  the 
terrible  army  of  pauperism,  insanity  and  crime,  saving  and  protecting 
all  who  come  within  the  reach  of  its  heavenly  hand.  To  charity, 
using  this  word  in  its  most  comprehensive  sense,  everything  human 
is  sacred,  because  everything  truly  human  is  an  offspring  of  the 
Divine.  Selfishness  would  let  the  destitute  perish,  while  charity 
feeds  and  clothes  and  supplies,  as  far  as  human  power  may  go,  the 
needs  involved  in  human  suffering.  Stern  justice  consigns  the 
offender  to  prison  and  to  punishment.  Charity  follows  with  saintly 
step  the  march  of  justice,  seeking  to  reform,  rather  than  exterminate 
the  offender ;  seeking  to  restore  him  to  ways  of  righteousness  and 
justice  and  peace.  Social  order  punishes  to  restrain,  while  heavenly 
charity  seeks  to  prevent  the  first  steps  to  crime  and  disorder,  immor- 
ality and  vice,  and  the  evils  that  follow  in  their  train. 

Glancing  over  the  splendid  programme  prepared  for  this  series  of 
congresses,  luminous  as  it  is  with  great  subjects  and  distinguished 
names,  we  notice  nearly  all  the  American  states,  England,  Scotland, 
Canada,  France,  Germany,  Austria,  Russia,  Italy,  Belgium,  Den- 
mark, Netherlands,  Norway,  New  South  Wales — and  the  list  is  not 
complete.     Since  it  was  printed  other  countries  have  been  added  to 


30      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

the  catalogue,  whose  representatives  will  be  named  in  the  announce- 
ments as  the  congresses  proceed. 

Six  congresses  are  to  be  held  in  this  series  :  The  Congress  led  by 
the  National  Prison  Association,  that  by  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities,  Correction  and  Philanthropy,  the  General  Congress 
embracing  International  Conferences  of  that  name,  a  Congressof  the 
King's  Daughters  and  Sons,  a  Congress  of  Visiting  Nurses'  Associ- 
ations, and  a  Congress  on  Preventive  Work.  There  was  also 
appointed  to  be  held  a  Congress  of  the  Social  Wing  of  the  Salvation 
Army,  but  circumstances  have  intervened  to  cause  the  postponement 
of  this  meeting  to  a  later  date. 

The  first  two  congresses  named  have  already  been  held  during 
the  past  week,  the  extent  of  the  several  programmes  being  such  that 
they  could  not  well  be  executed  in  a  single  week.  The  General 
Congress  on  Moral  and  Social  Reform  is  appointed  to  hold  fourteen 
sessions.  It  is  also  divided  into  eight  separate  sections  :  One  on  the 
Public  Treatment  of  Pauperism,  to  hold  five  sessions  ;  one  on  the 
Care  of  Neglected  and  Dependent  Children,  to  hold  five  sessions  ; 
one  on  Hospital  Treatment,  Dispensaries,  Nurses,  and  First  Aid  to 
the  Injured,  to  hold  five  sessions ;  a  section  on  the  Treatment  of 
the  Insane,  to  hold  five  sessions ;  a  section  on  the  Prevention  of 
Crime,  Punishment,  and  Reformation,  with  five  sessions ;  a  section 
on  Charity  Organization  and  Co-operation,  with  the  furnishing  of 
employment  to  the  poor,  to  hold  four  sessions ;  a  section  on  Socio- 
logy in  Education,  one  of  the  most  important  of  all,  with  a  similar 
number  of  sessions;  and  a  section  on  the  Care  and  Training  of  the 
Feeble-minded,  with  five  sessions.  These  fourteen  general  sessions 
and  these  nearly  forty  sectional  sessions  outline  a  scope  and  thor- 
oughness of  treatment  of  all  the  questions  involved  which  I  think  it 
entirely  safe  to  say  has  never  before  been  attempted  on  any  occasion 
of  the  kind.  The  sessions  already  held  indicate  the  comprehensive- 
ness of  treatment  which  may  be  expected  in  those  which  are  to  follow, 
and  in  which  will  be  presented  the  views  and  methods  of  proceedings 
current,  not  only  in  our  own  country,  but  in  many  other  lands.  See- 
ing this  magnificent  array  of  intellectual  and  moral  treasures,  one 
might  well  imagine  that  unlimited  resources  had  been  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  committee  of  organization  which  has  had  these  con- 
gresses in  charge;  but  it  will  be  one  of  the  wonders  of  this  series  of 
world's  congresses  that  nearly  all  this  work  has  been  done  through 
the  voluntary  efforts  of  self-denying  men  and  women.  Not  one  dollar 


GENERAL    EXERCISES. 


31 


has  been  provided  by  the  Exposition  authorities  for  the  compensa- 
tion or  expenses  of  attending  delegates,  and  yet  there  is  scarcely  any 
part  of  the  world  which  has  not  sent  or  is  not  now  sending  its  repre- 
sentatives here  to  Chicago  to  participate  in  the  discussion  of  the 
most  vital  problems  which  affect  the  human  race. 

Under  these  circumstances  my  first  duty  is  to  make  a  grateful  and 
sincere  acknowledgment  of  the  superb  ability  and  devotion  to  duty 
which  has  characterized  the  committee  of  organization,  whose  work 
centered  in  the  executive  committee,  of  which  Mrs.  James  M. 
Flower  is  chairman  and  Mr.  N.  S.  Rosenau  secretary,  aided  by 
veterans  in  the  war  for  moral  progress  and  reform  like  Dr.  F.  H. 
Wines  and  his  eminent  corps  of  coadjutors.  It  only  remains  for  me 
now  to  extend  a  most  hearty  and  earnest  welcome  to  the  World's 
Congress  of  Moral  and  Social  Reform  of  1893.  I  give  you  this 
welcome,  not  only  in  behalf  of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary,  but 
in  behalf  of  the  city  in  which  you  meet,  the  state  under  whose 
authority  you  convene,  and  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
which  has  supported  and  upheld  the  World's  Congresses  of  1895 
from  their  inception.  My  personal  regret  is  that  so  many  other  and 
pressing  duties  will  prevent  my  enjoying  from  session  to  session  the 
rich  feast  of  intellectual  and  moral  excellencies  provided  for  this 
occasion. 

One  thing  more  remains  to  be  done  before  the  work  of  the  con- 
gress proper  shall  commence.  The  World's  Congress  Auxiliary 
would  be  but  half  an  organization  but  for  the  Woman's  Branch, 
which  has  had  in  charge  the  interests  of  woman  in  all  the  depart- 
ments of  human  progress,  and  has  brought  them  forward  for  presen- 
tation in  each  of  the  congresses.  That  Woman's  Branch  of  the 
World's  Congress  Auxiliary  has  for  its  chief  officer  a  distinguished 
leader  whose  name  is  known  in  all  countries  as  one  of  the  foremost 
champions  of  woman  and  her  interests,  and  thus  of  the  welfare  of 
human  society,  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,  who  will  now  address  you. 

Mrs.  Potter  Palmer. — With  such  a  rare  and  varied  programme 
awaiting,  I  feel  I  should  not  detain  you  one  instant  in  uttering  my 
word  of  welcome  to  the  distinguished  guests  here  assembled.  My 
only  excuse  for  doing  so  is  that  women  have  so  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  field  of  work  which  you  are  now  to  consider  and  dis- 
cuss, that  some  attention  should  be  called  to  that  fact.  While  gov- 
ernments arid  the  masculine  sex  have  been  interested  in  maintaining 
and  sending  their  armies  out  for  the  defense  of  the  country  they 


32       INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

loved,  they  have  also  uttered  the  paradox  of  sending  out  with  the 
other  hand  organized  armies  of  women  and  nurses  to  heal  the 
wounds  which  they  found  it  necessary  to  make.  This  organization 
has  become  so  important  and  so  conspicuous  all  over  the  world  that 
it  forms  the  greatest  and  one  of  the  most  important  factors  of  modern 
life.  While  the  government  punishes  in  its  prisons  and  takes  care  of 
the  injured  in  its  hospitals,  it  is  the  women  who  tend  to  them  and 
attempt  to  spread  abroad  the  spirit  of  benevolence  and  kindness, 
the  principles  of  good  housekeeping  and  good  order,  and  the  special 
gift  of  the  temperament  of  women  makes  them  specially  available  in 
work  of  this  field.  From  the  time  of  Florence  Nightingale,  who 
commenced  the  first  earnest  work  on  the  field  of  battle,  to  the  time 
of  our  own  civil  war,  when  one  of  the  distinguished  members  of  this 
congress  did  so  much  to  organize  the  relief  work  in  this  country,  and 
whose  name,  for  that  reason,  has  now  become  world-wide  and  known 
everywhere,  the  annals  of  strife  are  illuminated  b)'  the  humane 
record  of  women.  The  Sherborne  prison  at  Massachusetts  stands 
foremost  among  the  benevolent  institutions  of  the  age  ;  that  is  man- 
aged and  conducted  entirely  by  women. 

I  am  more  pleased  to  welcome  you,  because  we  are  now  entering 
upon  a  new  era  of  charitable  work.  We  are  now  considering  the 
administration  of  charities  in  a  scientific  way.  We  are  not  attempting 
so  much  to  alleviate  existing  conditions  as  we  are  to  prevent  their 
existence,  and,  because  of  the  many  distinguished  persons  who  are  to 
address  you  on  these  subjects,  this  congress  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant that  will  assemble  in  this  city  during  the  coming  season.  All 
thinking  persons  will  watch  the  deliberations  with  the  greatest  interest 
and  with  a  full  realization  of  the  significance  to  the  whole  world  of 
the  words  which  are  uttered  here.  Our  welcome  seems  faint  in  com- 
parison to  the  welcome  with  which  your  words  will  be  received 
everywhere.  I  have  the  honor  to  wish  the  most  successful  meeting 
to  this  congress. 

President  Bonney. — Gen.  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  ex-president  of 
the  United  States,  had  accepted  the  presidency  of  this  Congress 
of  Moral  and  Social  Reform.  Before  this  assembly,  as  you  are  all 
aware,  he  was  called  by  the  Divine  Master  to  that  higher  realm 
whence  all  spirit  of  charity  proceeds.  His  place  in  this  organization 
has  not  been  filled.  It  was  deemed  a  higher  and  better  tribute  to 
his  memory  that  the  place  assigned  to  him  should  remain  vacant, 
and  that  the  duties  of  the  presiding  officer  should  devolve  upon  the 


GENERAL   EXERCISES.  33 

first  vice-president,  and  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you  as  your 
presiding  officer  Dr.  Frederick  Howard  Wines. 

Dr.  Wines. — I  congratulate  you  on  the  favorable  auspices  under 
which  this  congress  has  assembled  and  for  the  success  with  which 
the  preliminary  arrangements  for  it  have  been  conducted.  We  are 
greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Bonney  and  to  the  World's  Congress  Auxil- 
iary ;  and  we  are  especially  indebted  to  the  Woman's  Branch  of 
that  organization  and  to  our  friends,  Mrs.  Palmer  and  her  coadjutors. 
It  is  true  that  for  success  in  charitable  work  we  are  more  indebted 
to  women  than  to  men.  I  am  very  sorry  that  President  Hayes 
could  not  be  here  to-day.  As  he  is  not  here,  it  has  been  thought 
proper  that  some  words  should  be  said  by  me  in  the  introduction 
with  regard  to  President  Hayes'  life  and  character,  which  will  take 
the  place  of  the  address  which  he  would  have  made  had  he  been 
present.* 

The  following  foreign  delegates  were  introduced  to  the  audience 
by  Dr.  Wines  : 

M.  Ottocar  Aderkas,  of  Russia. 

Mme.  Marie  Marshall,  of  France. 

Mme.  F.  Zampini  Salazar,  of  Rome,  Italy. 

M.  Prosper  Van  Geert,  of  Antwerp,  Belgium. 

M.  Edward  Boos-Jeglier,  of  Switzerland. 

Lieut.-Col.  J.  Lane  Notter,  M.  D.,  of  the  British  Army. 

Miss  Catherine  H.  Spence,  of  Australia. 

M.  Michael  KazArin,  of  Russia. 

M.  Ottocar  Aderkas. — I  have  the  honor  to  express  to  you, 
in  the  name  of  Russia,  my  native  country,  and  especially  in  the 
name  of  the  Russian  Imperial  Charitable  Institution  of  the  Empress 
Mary,  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  hearty  welcome  accorded  us  in  this 
very  learned  and  cosmopolitan  assembly.  In  Russia  we  are  largely 
interested  in  all  philanthropic  and  charitable  questions,  and  for  that 
reason  we  attend  this  international  congress  with  a  feeling  of  the 
most  profound  sympathy.  It  is  on  account  of  the  historical  and 
social  conditions  in  Russia  and  the  development  of  philanthropic 
questions  in  Europe  that  we  come  here  to  greet  you.  For  the  last 
twenty-five  years  we  have  witnessed  a  rapid  and  successful  move- 

*  This  address  is  published  in  full  in  the  proceedings  of  the  National  Prison 
Association  for  1893,  and  is  therefore  omitted  here.  It  can  be  obtained  from 
the  Secretary  of  that  Association,  Rev.  John  L.  Milligan,  Allegheny,  Pa. 


34      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

ment  in  this  direction,  and  constant  efforts  are  made  by  the  govern- 
ment and  by  all  classes  of  the  Russian  people  in  this  direction. 
Therefore  all  the  questions  to  be  examined  here  are  important  and 
interesting  to  us,  since  they  bear  upon  vital  conditions  of  our  social 
life.  For  instance,  the  suppression  of  pauperism,  the  care  of  the 
foundlings  of  neglected  and  feeble-minded  children,  the  treatment  of 
the  insane,  the  organizations  of  charities  in  large  cities  and  villages, 
etc.  I  feel  sure  that  great  benefit  to  the  unfortunate  of  all  countries 
will  be  derived  from  your  valuable  reports  and  discussions. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that,  for  charities  and  philanthropy,  there 
is  no  boundary  separating  countries  and  peoples.  A  striking  proof 
thereof  was  given  by  the  American  people  last  year,  when,  after  the 
poor  harvests  in  Russia,  American  ships  laden  with  corn  reached  the 
far-away  northern  shores  of  the  Baltic  Sea.  As  a  token  of  gratitude 
for  such  philanthropic  assistance,  the  Russian  Imperial  Charitable 
Institution  of  the  Empress  Mary  sent  a  complete  exhibit  to  the 
World's  Columbian  Exposition,  an  exhibit  of  the  works  of  the  pupils 
of  various  schools,  orphans'  homes,  children's  asylums,  and  homes 
for  the  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb,  including  maps,  photographs  and 
statistics,  and  have  decided  that  all  these  exhibits,  after  the  close  of 
the  Exposition,  are  to  be  given  to  the  American  charitable  institu- 
tions. Now  let  me  repeat  the  thanks  of  Russia  and  to  wish  this 
international  congress  the  fullest  success. 

Madame  Marshall. — I  shall  detain  you  but  a  minute,  ladies  and 
gentlemen.  My  voice  has  gone  this  morning.  I  am  very  happy  to 
bring  here  my  word  of  thanks  in  the  name  of  my  country,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  friend  whom  you  have  heard  before,  Madame  Bogelot, 
I  hope  to  have  an  opportunity  to  speak  about  her  work  and  about 
the  work  done  in  France  for  preventing  the  young  from  falling  and 
for  rehabilitating  those  who  have  fallen. 

Madame  F.  Zampini  Salazar. — I  am  thankful  to  be  invited  to 
speak,  but  I  have  a  paper  upon  the  children  in  Italy  which  I  shall 
have  the  honor  to  read  Wednesday  evening.  I  thank  you  very 
much  for  your  kind  reception. 

M.  Van  Geert. — Being  a  foreigner,  I  must  first  of  all  apologize 
for  my  bad  English.  The  hearty  welcome  which  waS  wished  to  us 
by  the  President  and  the  Mrs.  President  is  very  flattering  for  me. 
Coming  from  Antwerp  to  your  city  to  attend  your  International 
Congress  of  Charities  and  Corrections,  I  did  not  expect  to  meet  here 
such  distinguished  people  from  all  countries  of  the  world.     There 


GENERAL    EXERCISES.  35 

are  so  many  new  ideas  to  be  presented  in  this  congress  that  I  hope 
and  trust  there  will  come  some  new  light  for  the  benefit  of  humanity. 

Lieut.-Col.  NoTTER. — I  thank  you  most  sincerely,  on  behalf  of  the 
British  Army,  which  I  represent,  for  the  honor  you  confer  upon  it  in 
the  hearty  welcome  you  have  accorded  me  as  its  representative. 
Viewing,  as  I  do,  this  question  from  a  military  aspect,  I  hope  it  will 
be  followed  by  discussion  to  carry  out  those  systems  which  are  in 
vogue  in  civil  life  to  lessen  to  some  extent  the  calamities  which  are 
incidental  to  all,  and  that  the  outcome  of  this  congress  will  be  such 
as  to  insure  a  uniform  system,  alleviating  some  of  the  hardships 
incidental  to  a  soldier's  life. 

Miss  Spence. — In  speaking  to  you  I  do  not  speak  as  a  foreigner. 
We  are  daughters  of  the  same  mother  nation.  The  great  British 
Empire  is  ours,  the  English  language  is  ours,  the  English  poets 
have  sung  to  us,  the  English  history  is  our  history,  and  our  lives  are 
lived  upon  English  lines.  Nothing  thrilled  me  so  much  as  when  in 
San  Francisco  I  heard  the  band  strike  up  the  hymn  of  "America," 
and  lo !  the  air  was  "  God  save  the  Queen." 

As  an  Australian,  I  shall  speak  to  you  at  more  length  upon  our 
methods  in  Australia  at  another  time. 

M.  Boos-Jeglier  and  M.  KazaRIN  also  made  brief  responses. 

Dr.  Wines  introduced  Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody,  of  Harvard 
University,  who  delivered  the  oration  on  The  Problem  of  Charity. 
printed  elsewhere,  in  the  volume  on  Orgayiization  of  Charities. 

At  the  close  of  the  morning  session  the  delegates  were  given  a 
reception  in  another  room  in  the  Art  Institute,  where  a  handsome 
collation  was  served. 


CLOSING  SESSIONS. 

Sunday  Morning,  June  i8. 

Religious  services  were  held  in  the  Hall  of  Columbus,  at  11  A.  M., 
in  accordance  with  the  following  programme : 
Organ  Prelude,  Miss  Harris. 
Introductory  Reading. 
Song—"  The  Holy  City;'  Adda77i,  Mr.  Dale. 
Scripture  Reading. 
Prayer. 


36      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Hymn — ^^ Life's  Service''  George  Herbert. 

Sermon — "  The  Relation  of  the  Church  to  Charities  arid  Reform''' 
Rev.  Anna  Garlin  Spencer,  Minister  of  Bell-street  Chapel,  Prov- 
idence, R.  I. 

Hymn — "  The  Law  of  Love''  R.  C.  French. 

Benediction, 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE  CHURCH  TO  CHARITIES 

AND  REFORM. 

REV.  ANNA  garlin   SPENCER. 

The  church,  like  the  state,  was  born  at  the  fireside,  in  the  home. 
The  ancient  father  was  both  priest  and  king.  The  race  religions  which 
developed  from  this  ancient  worship  of  ancestors  have  each  given 
some  unique  and  characteristic  element  in  the  history  of  religion  ; 
the  universal  religion  of  which  these  are  but  a  part.  Each  has  given 
some  note  in  the  symphony  of  religion  without  which  our  present 
harmony  of  worship,  of  aspiration  and  of  service,  would  not  be  so 
perfect.  Mediaeval  Christianity,  which  is  our  more  immediate  ancestor 
in  religion,  claimed  to  be  universal,  and  sought  to  control  and  lead  all 
the  higher  social,  moral  and  spiritual  activities  of  man.  The  Protestant 
Reformation,  so-called,  which  set  our  civilization  its  lesson,  broke  this 
united  centralized  power  of  human  leadership  into  many  parts.  The 
state,  which  had  been  but  a  temporal  arm  of  the  church,  became  an 
independent  power.  Education,  which  had  been  most  jealously 
regarded  and  held  as  a  principal  function  of  the  church,  became 
growingly  independent  of  it,  and  set  up  housekeeping  in  the  school 
of  life  on  its  own  account.  And  charity  itself,  even  now  so  closely 
allied  to  all  church  activity,  became  more  and  more  an  object  of 
secular  interest  and  study,  and  a  function  ofsecular  control  and  leader- 
ship. So  that  to-day,  in  place  of  one  all-pervading  interest  in  life, 
like  Latin  Christianity,  we  have,  in  all  our  Protestant  countries  (which 
seem  to  be  the  leading  countries  in  modern  civilization),  this  variety 
of  interests,  all  at  work  upon  the  same  problem — how  to  mend  the 
world  and  how  to  grow  better  men  and  women. 

In  this  process  of  differentiation  of  spiritual  forces,  many  have 
seemed  to  lose  sight  of  the  value  and  worth  of  the  church  itself. 
Because  education  and  charity,  and  even  government  itself,  were  once 
within  the  power  of  the  church  and  subject  to  its  leadership,  when 
those  influences  are  no  longer  churchly,  but  have  gone  out  into  the 


SPENCER.  37 

open  air,  away  from  the  temple  and  the  altar  (to  the  sight  of  men  at 
least),  many  fail  to  see  for  what  the  church  can  now  stand  and  what 
is  its  special  value.  We  must,  therefore,  ask  ourselves  first  of  all 
what  the  unique  and  special  function  of  the  church  is.  Is  there  any- 
thing in  it  which  always  was  its  special  business,  and  now  remains 
perhaps  its  only  business,  since  this  change  has  been  brought  about. 
In  brief — I  must  speak,  of  course,  from  my  own  point  of  view 
— the  church  stands  with  us  for  religion.  And  what  is  religion? 
Religion  is,  first,  the  thought  of  man  about  the  universe  in  which 
he  finds  himself,  his  struggle  to  explain  not  only  the  powers  which 
surround  him,  but  himself  and  his  relation  to  those  powers ;  and, 
second,  religion  is  the  yearning  and  effort  of  the  human  soul 
to  place  itself  in  right  relations  with  this  universe  in  which  man  '. 
finds  himself  a  part  so  small  and  yet  so  great.  If  that  be  true,  if 
religion  under  all  its  aspects  has  been  the  seeking  of  man's  mind  to 
spell  out  God,  the  source  of  all  power,  as  a  centralizing  influence  in 
this  universe  ;  if  religion,  under  all  names  and  in  all  climes,  under  all 
differentiation,  has  been  the  effort  of  man  after  self-culture  toward 
holy  living,  the  effort  of  man  to  place  himself  at  one  with  the  forces  tf~"  -^ 
drawing  the  ages  on  ;  if  this  be  religion,  then  is  there  any  other  influ-  |  /  ^ 
ence  in  society  save  the  church  that  stands  for  it  and  it  alone  ?  — ~i 

Every  charitable  agency,  every  reformatory  institution  or  move- 
ment is  doing  its  special  work  in  helping  men  and  women  to  grow 
better,  and  its  strength,  the  strength  of  individual  effort,  is  its  weak- 
ness also.  Nearly  every  man  and  woman  to-day  is  called  upon,  six- 
sevenths  of  his  time,  to  serve  as  a  link  only  in  a  great  chain  of  social 
effort.  He  is  made  to  feel  almost  oppressed  with  the  weight  of  other 
lives.  He  sometimes  loses  himself  in  his  relations  ;  and  the  danger 
is  quite  as  great  for  the  special  worker  in  philanthropy  or  reform  as 
for  the  man  whose  business  is  the  promotion  of  material  interests. 
He  who  is  set  a  special  task,  and  acquires  expert  knowledge  in  order 
to  fulfill  that  task,  is  quite  as  apt  to  forget  that  he  is  simply  a  part  of 
the  great  enginery  of  reform.  He  is  very  apt  to  feel  that  his  cause  is 
the  cause  of  humanity;  and  so,  for  the  workers  in  charity  and  reforms, 
quite  as  truly  as  for  the  worker  in  business  and  for  the  artisan  and 
for  the  man  or  woman  set  any  task  in  life,  it  is  important  that  one  day 
in  the  week  he  be  appealed  to  as  a  whole  person,  as  having  infinite 
relation  with  the  eternal,  which  is  here  and  now. 

"  We  want,"  says  Emerson,  "  not  thinkers,  but  men  thinking."  So, 
in  charity  and  reform,  we  want  not  moralists:  men  at  work  at  this 


38       INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

or  that  specialty  in  such  ways  as  to  lose  their  personaHty  in  their 
work ;  but  we  want  men,  working  morally  :  those  who  stand  in  the 
beauty  of  holiness.  Let  us  never  lose  from  our  consciousness  the 
derivation  of  the  word  holiness — those  who  stand  in  the  beauty  of 
wholeness,  and  take  hold  of  their  individual  tasks,  not  as  specialists, 
but  as  whole  men  and  women  doing  special  things.  The  church 
stands  to  me  for  that  altar  where  man  or  woman  shall  find,  and  where 
alone  they  can  find,  that  heavenly  manna  which  feeds  the  soul  day 
by  day,  that  heavenly  manna  which  comes  only  day  by  day,  the 
church  of  the  living  God,  the  living  church  of  the  living  God,  the 
church  of  the  present  revelation  of  God  in  human  life.  It  stands 
with  its  doors  wide  open  and  its  windows  flooded  with  the  daylight. 
It  stands  with  its  altar  facing  always  north  and  south  and  east  and 
west,  with  its  past  and  its  future  linked  in  the  present,  which  includes 
them  both  for  the  soul  that  struggles  and  aspires.  I  see  no  other 
institution  in  society  which  can  thus  appeal  to  the  whole  man  and  the 
whole  woman.  It  is  the  ideal  fulfilment  of  the  command,  "  Be  ye 
perfect  even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  Not  merely  do  the 
thing  that  thou  hast  been  set  to  do,  and  do  it  well  ;  but  live  the  life 
that  has  been  given  thee,  and  live  it  well.  So  the  church,  now  that 
its  function  has  been  differentiated  and  made  more  exclusive,  is  more 
than  ever  the  gift  of  God  in  human  growth  ;  it  is  more  than  ever  the 
one  sacred  meeting-place  of  all  souls. 

If  so,  what  is  its  relation  to  special  charities  and  reforms  ?  As  these 
children  of  the  old  mother  of  mediaeval  Christianity — education,  phil- 
anthropy, reform,  government,  domestic  life — have  gone  out  from 
the  ancient  shelter  and  set  up  housekeeping  on  their  own  account, 
have  they  become  independent  ?  so  independent,  that  the  church, 
as  mother,  has  no  longer  any  special  relation  to  them  ?  If  that  were 
true,  then  the  function  of  the  church  would  be  so  specialized  that  it 
would  lose  its  power.  A  man  or  a  woman  that  loses  his  rooting  in  the 
common  life  is  thenceforth  impotent.  But  the  church  is  not  set,  as  a 
permanent  task,  the  various  special  works  of  philanthropy  and 
reform. 

Let  me  explain.  Not  long  ago,  an  eloquent  voice  called  upon 
every  church  in  every  locality  to  establish  a  kindergarten  in  its  vestry. 
It  was  a  good  call  to  a  noble  service,  but  in  my  opinion  not  the 
wisest  call.  Better  than  a  kindergarten  in  every  church  vestry  is  a 
city  kindergarten,  under  the  public  school  system,  divorced  from  all 
sectarian  interests,  standing  upon  its  own  educational  feet.     Just  so, 


SPENCER.  39 

I  heard  another  eloquent  voice  call  for  district  nurses  to  visit  the 
poor  to  be  attached  to  every  church  organization.  Far  better  than 
that  is  the  public  dispensary,  under  charge  of  the  physician,  and  dis- 
trict nurses  going  forth  with  no  taint  of  proselytism,  even  in  the  sus- 
picion of  those  to  whom  they  minister,  upon  their  white  garments; 
going  forth  as  representative  of  that  outside  church  of  humanity  that 
does  not  even  try  to  spell  its  creed.  And  so  of  all  the  agencies 
which  make  up  the  great  procession  of  philanthropic  effort. 

What  is  the  especial  effort  of  the  charity  organization  movement 
in  our  time?  Is  it  not  to  lift  the  partial  and  petty  charities  of  indi- 
vidual churches  and  of  little  societies,  where  each  person  has  his  pet 
theory,  into  the  atmosphere  of  scientific  investigation  and  of  universal 
human  brotherhood  ?  That  is  the  distinctive  feature  in  all  modern 
work  in  charity  and  reform.  As  we  find  our  need  in  the  matter  and 
learn  our  way,  we  take  ourselves  out  of  the  narrow  path,  however 
dear  that  path  may  be,  and  strike  out  into  the  open  highway,  to  the 
betterment  of  our  own  work  and  to  the  enlargement  of  the  whole 
scheme  under  which  we  labor. 

When  our  speakers,  during  this  past  week,  wished  to  place  the 
highest  crown  upon  their  own  effort  in  any  line,  they  all  uttered  the 
same  sentiment :  "  We  do  our  work  without  regard  to  sectarian 
interests,  without  regard  to  churchly  affiliations  ;  we  do  it  on  the 
broadest  human  ground."  The  church  that  would  seek  to  stem  that 
tide,  even  by  its  own  activity  in  a  special  line — the  church  that  should 
cling,  for  instance,  to  its  own  little  kindergarten,  instead  of  putting 
in  its  work  with  the  city  kindergarten,  or  to  its  own  little  district 
nursing  and  its  own  friendly  visiting,  instead  of  going  with  the  crowd, 
in  a  large  way  and  on  the  best  lines,  is  defeating  the  end  for  which 
it  stands,  the  end  of  uniting  the  life  of  man  to  the  life  which  is  its 
source. 

If  there  can  be  no  such  relation  between  the  church  and  these 
special  philanthropies  and  reforms,  can  there  be  no  other?  The 
church  is  not  to  be  a  moral  workshop,  but  it  should  be  a  moral  expo- 
sition. It  is  not  to  show  the  drudgery  and  the  toil  of  the  special 
worker,  still  less  of  special  reformers ;  but  the  pulpit  should  exhibit, 
one  after  another,  the  great  works  of  ethical  progress  and  of  social 
reform.  For  this  purpose  I  believe  that  lay-workers  should  receive 
a  fine  sympathetic  setting  of  their  work  in  the  pulpit.  The  minister 
is  the  only  professional  person  who  is  bound  to  be  general  rather 
than  special  in  his  study.  He  is  the  only  one  who,  by  virtue  of  his 
professional  demands,  must  keep  himself  open  on  all  sides  to  truth 


40      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

from  all  directions.  He  is  the  only  person  who  should  be  what 
Hartley  Coleridge  declared  Harriet  Martineau  was,  "a  monomaniac 
about  everything."  But  what  is  the  penalty  that  one  pays  for  know- 
ing a  little  of  a  great  many  things?  It  is  that  he  shall  not  know 
enough  about  any  one.  And  I  believe  the  pulpit  needs  strengthen- 
ing to-day  by  visits  now  and  then,  visits  of  inspiration,  of  direction, 
of  instruction,  from  these  laymen  and  laywomen  who  minister  with- 
out the  robe  and  without  the  laying-on  of  hands  in  the  great  outside 
church,  in  humanitarian  service.  When  the  minister  is  recognized 
to  be,  what  I  believe  he  is,  chiefly  a  teacher,  then  he  will  welcome  to 
his  teacher's  desk  every  man  who  can  teach  some  one  thing  a  great 
deal  better  than  he  can  teach  it ;  and  then  we  shall  see  indeed  in  the 
church  a  moral  exposition.  Then  it  will  be  impossible,  as  I  fear  now 
it  is  alas  !  possible,  for  a  man  or  woman  to  attend  church  regularly 
for  twenty  years,  and  know  almost  nothing  of  what  is  being  done 
for  humanity,  almost  nothing  of  the  special  movements  that  are 
lifting  people  up  in  social  condition.  The  function  of  religion  is  to 
appeal  to  the  individual  where  he  stands.  "  Be  ye  perfect,"  but  what 
does  that  mean  to  the  man  or  the  woman,  and  above  all  to  the  little 
child,  who  is  cradled  in  degradation,  who  breathes  in  pollution  with 
every  breath  ?  For  such  (and  they  are  legion),  the  outward  condi- 
tions of  life  must  be  made  better,  in  order  that  the  word  of  religion 
may  be  able  to  reach  them. 

I  do  not  forget  the  magnificent  efforts  of  the  Salvation  Army  and 
others  who  carry  the  gospel  of  Christ,  with  the  old  daring  of  the 
Master,  into  the  darkest  places  of  earth.  I  give  them  my  reverence 
and  my  honor.  But  what,  my  friends,  was  the  most  remarkable 
thing  in  General  Booth's  great  book.  In  Darkest  Engla^id  and  the 
Way  Out!  Was  it  the  enthusiasm  for  humanity?  That  has  been 
shown  by  many  another.  Was  it  his  faith  in  the  power  of  the  human 
soul  to  respond  to  the  noble  appeal  of  religion?  That  is  felt  by 
every  true  minister  of  religion.  The  most  remarkable  thing  in  that 
book  is  that  his  scheme  is  a  scheme  such  as  the  charity  organization 
and  every  other  charitable  society  is  pressing,  a  scheme  to  purify 
conditions,  to  uplift  men  by  the  thousands,  by  setting  them  in  better 
surroundings.  And  that  is  the  testimony,  unconscious  largely,  of  a 
man  whose  methods  in  religion  are  of  the  older  kind.  It  is  the 
special  teaching  of  the  spirit  of  our  age.  I  cannot  give  it  better  than 
in  Herbert  Spencer's  words :  "  No  man  can  be  fully  moral  until  all 
are  moral ;  no  man  can  be  perfectly  happy  until  all  are  happy  ;  no 
man  can  be  perfectly  wise  until  all  are  wise." 


•  SPENCER.  41 

And  what  does  that  mean  ?  Precisely  the  same  thing  that  was 
meant  by  Him  of  old  who  said,  "  Ye  are  members  one  of  another"; 
only  we  call  it  now  the  solidarity  of  the  human  race,  and  we  have 
learned  to  translate  it  in  terms  of  science.  It  means  that  every  man 
and  woman  should  every  day  give  thanks,  on  bended  knee,  that  the 
justice  of  God  will  not  let  one  human  being  get  so  far  ahead  of  the 
rest  that  he  has  not  to  wait  for  them  to  catch  up.  It  means  that  we 
are  all  God's  children.  We  tried  to  believe  it  in  the  old  days,  but 
we  are  learning  that  it  is  true.  The  new  doctrine  of  equality  of 
human  political  rights  has  forced  it  upon  us.  The  new  method  of 
education  by  development  is  teaching  it  to  us  in  gentler  ways.  In 
the  administration  of  charity  we  see  that  poverty  is  an  open  mouth 
which  never  can  be  filled  until  we  remove  the  cause.  We  are  learn- 
ing that  nothing  is  really  permanent  that  does  not  uplift  life.  And 
thanks  to  God  for  the  lesson,  though  it  comes  sometimes  in  hard 
ways,  and  we  find  ourselves  pulled  back — and  it  is  God's  justice  that 
does  it — pulled  back  and  held  down  by  the  great  mass  of  creatures 
not  yet  emerged  from  the  soil,  who,  as  Emerson  says,  "  are  still  paw- 
ing to  get  free."  We  must  bring  all  of  music,  all  of  art,  all  of  beauty 
that  we  may,  to  coax  the  creature  out  from  his  bestial  surroundings. 
We  must  bring  as  many  purified  homes,  all  open  air-spaces,  all  edu- 
cational appliances,  all  the  tenderness  and  care,  all  the  wisest  direc- 
tion of  which  we  are  capable,  to  help  this  creature  in  his  upward 
striving.  For  the  creature  is  ourselves.  We  are  one,  in  a  deeper 
sense  than  we  are  separate — we  children  of  a  common  father.  What 
is  it  in  us  that  links  us  to  God  ?  Is  it  the  separate  self?  No,  it  is  a 
universal  self.  It  is  because  we,  in  our  souls,  are  a  spark  of  the 
divine  ;  and  the  divine  is  one.  As  one  of  old  said  :  "  He  who  doth 
not  love  his  brother,  whom  he  hath  seen,  can  not  love  God,  whom 
he  hath  not  seen." 

The  relation  of  the  church  to  charities  and  reforms  is  the  relation 
of  one  uniting  aspiration,  one  altar  of  worship  to  all  special  workers. 
The  church  is,  as  I  have  said,  a  moral  exposition,  where  history  is 
shown  to  be  not  a  collection  of  dry  facts  but  a  series  of  footprints  of 
divinity,  still  warm  from  the  holy  pressure.  It  is  a  place  where 
science  is  seen  to  be  not  merely  a  studious  attempt  to  master 
the  secrets  of  the  material  universe,  but  a  record  of  the  "loitering 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  its  way  to  the  soul  of  man";  where  education 
is  seen  to  be  not  self-cultivation  chiefly,  but  the  cultivation  and 
development  of  all ;  a  place  where  its  old  appeal  to  the  individual 


42       INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

soul  to  be  better  here  and  now  just  where  it  stands,  has  added  an 
atmosphere  sympathetic  and  warm  to  every  movement  that  seeks  to 
better  the  conditions  in  which  any  and  every  individual  life  is  placed. 

I  have  a  vision  of  the  church  that  shall  be.  It  will  be  a  place  of 
peace.  In  it  man  and  woman  shall  love  one  another.  They  shall 
not  quarrel  over  texts  or  sects.  It  will  be  a  place  of  harmony.  It 
will  have  its  altar  reared  to  the  one  God  of  all  human  souls.  It  will 
have  a  ritual  made  splendid  with  the  prayers  of  all  the  saints  of  all 
the  ages.  It  will  have  a  glory  and  truth  which  is  the  shining  of  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness.  It  shall  have  a  brave  word  from  its  pulpit 
that  "nothing  human  alien  deems,  nor  disesteems  man's  meanest 
claim  upon  it."  Into  it  men  shall  go,  not  for  rest  alone,  but  for  an 
uplifting  of  spirit  that  shall  forever  put  to  shame  all  lowness  of 
aim  and  all  selfishness  of  purpose.  And  when  the  church  thus 
verifies  its  credentials  and  magnifies  its  office,  nay,  whenever  an  indi- 
vidual church  seeks,  however  feebly,  so  to  live  out  its  life,  there  shall 
be  no  complaint  that  men  and  women  do  not  go  to  hear  its  word. 

We  have  lost  somewhat,  some  people  tell  us,  the  old  faith.  It  is 
not  true.  There  never  was  an  age  when  men  so  hungered  for  the 
revelation  of  the  infinite.  There  never  was  an  age  when  men's  hearts 
were  so  on  fire  with  holy  purpose  as  now.  The  trouble  is,  that  the 
church  has  entangled  itself  in  small  ways  and  in  cheap  business,  when 
it  might  be  working  for  the  multitudes  on  the  world's  great  highway. 

The  true  church  is  in  the  heart  of  man.  It  is  not  in  brick  or 
mortar  or  marble ;  it  is  not  in  picture  or  legend  or  book.  The 
tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men — with  living  souls,  and  the  revelation 
of  God  is  to  men — to  living  souls.  "  The  pure  in  heart  shall  see 
Him  as  He  is,  and  to  him  who  doth  the  deed  the  truth  shall  be  made 
known." 

Sunday  Evening. 
The  following  is  the  programme  of  the  Sunday  evening  session: 

Organ  Prelude,  Mrs.  Parsons. 

Address  by  Mrs.  Sarah  B.  Cooper,  President,  Golden  Gate 
Kindergarten  Association,  San  Francisco. 

Subject:  "  The  Relation  of  the  Kindergarten  to  Pauperism  and 
Crime."'-^ 

Vocal  Solo—"  Covie  Unto  Me,''  Cowen,  Miss  Marion  Treat. 

*  Published  in  proceedings  of  section  on  Neglected,  Abandoned  and  Way- 
ward Children. 


GENERAL   EXERCISES.  43 

Address  by  Dr.  Felix  Adler,  of  New  York.* 

Subject:  ^^  American  Education  from  a  National  Point  of  Viezc." 

Closing  exercises  of  the  Congress. 

Organ,  Mrs.  Parsons. 

In  closing  the  Congress,  Dr.  Wines  said :  In  a  few  moments  this 
Congress  will  dissolve  without  day ;  but  before  it  separates,  I  crave 
permission  to  say  one  word  in  conclusion. 

It  is  customary  to  pass  votes  of  thanks  to  those  to  whom  we  feel 
ourselves  under  obligation.  But  the  cause  of  humanity  and  philan- 
thropy is  under  obligation  to  nobody.  It  is  rather  a  privilege  to 
serve  it,  and  for  the  opportunity  to  serve  it  every  man  and  every 
woman  should  feel  grateful.  However,  there  are  certain  persons  not 
immediately  identified  with  us  in  our  work  whom  I  wish  to  mention 
here.  We  are  grateful  to  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  who  have 
furnished  the  sweet  and  inspiring  music  which  we  have  so  thor- 
oughly enjoyed.  We  have  been  particularly  gratified  by  the 
delightful  and  agreeable  services  rendered  by  the  young  lady  ushers 
who  have  attended  the  sessions  of  the  sections  of  this  congress.  We 
shall  remember  them  always  with  pleasure. 

This  has  been,  in  spite  of  great  difficulties,  a  successful  congress ; 
successful  in  the  attendance,  and  especially  successful  in  the  character 
of  the  papers  and  discussions.  Great  permanent  results  will  surely 
grow  out  of  it.  We  think  that  we  have  placed  the  work  of  the 
trained  nurses  of  this  country  upon  a  better  and  more  enduring  basis 
than  ever  before,  and  that  we  have  brought  philanthropy  and  learn- 
ing into  closer  and  more  vital  con.aCt  by  forming  a  connection,  which 
we  trust  will  never  be  severed,  between  the  institutions  of  learning  in 
this  country  and  the  practical  workers  in  this  field  of  humanitarian 
effort. 

I  should  feel  myself  wanting  in  my  duty  if  I  did  not  say  that  for 
whatever  success  the  Congress  has  had,  we  are  greatly  indebted  to 
our  friend  and  co-laborer,  Mr.  Nathaniel  S.  Rosenau,  who,  I  think, 
has  done  more  than  any  other  one  person  to  make  it  what  it  has 
proved  to  be :  an  international  forum  for  the  philanthropists  of  the 
world,  and  a  school  of  theory  and  practice  for  American  laborers  in 
the  field  of  correction,  prevention  and  benevolence. 

I  now  declare  the  Congress  adjourned  sine  die. 

*  Published    in    proceedings    of    section    on    Sociology    in    Institutions    of 
Learning. 


APPENDIX. 

WHAT  IS  THE  TRUE  WORK  OF  HUMANITY  FOR 

HUMANITY?* 

MRS.  ABBY  MORTON  DIAZ,  BELMONT,  MASSACHUSETTS. 

First,  let  us  make  clear  to  ourselves  the  purpose  of  human  beings^ 
namely,  io  live.  The  whole  universe  is  subject  everywhere  to  the 
same  general  laws,  and  the  most  apparent  of  these,  and  including  all 
others,  is  the  Law  of  Life.  Science  tells  us  that,  beginning  with  the 
most  infinitesimal  atom  and  ending  with  the  highest  human  intelli- 
gence, life  fills  all  and  is  all. 

In  studying  this  universal  law  the  world  of  vegetation  serves  well 
as  an  object-lesson.  Here,  and  co-extensive  with  life,  we  find  the 
Law  of  Individuality.  Within  a  few  square  yards  of  ground  we  find 
grasses,  daisies,  mullein,  trees,  bushes,  each  form  taking  heat,  light, 
moisture,  air,  soil-properties,  as  its  capacities  may  require.  The 
whole  pattern  must  appear.  Complete  individual  expression,  and 
nothing  short  of  this,  means  life,  whether  for  the  blade  of  grass  or 
for  the  tree ;  and  just  so  far  as  in  any  case  the  full  pattern  is  not 
shown  forth,  just  so  far  that  form  of  growth  fails  to  live.  And  note 
here  that  in  any  extent  of  ground  where  such  failure  shows  itself  in 
unshapely  forms,  blight,  stunted  growths,  scanty  or  imperfect  fruit, 
we  see  that  by  this  individual  failure  the  grand  intent  of  the  whole  is 
interfered  with,  that  the  completeness  of  the  whole  demands  the  full 
development  of  each. 

In  nature,  so  far  as  appears  to  us,  this  law  of  individual  expression 
acts  unintelligently ;   but  to  the  higher  creation,  humanity,  belongs 
the  power  and  responsibility  of  choice.     Nevertheless,  the  Law  of 
Life  is  inexorable. 

Now,  this  superior  order,  mankind,  has  chosen  to  bring  itself  under 
the  management  of  five  general  systems  :  the  political,  the  commer- 
cial, the  religious,  the  social,  the  educational.     These  have  wrought 

*  Paper  prepared  for  a  meeting  on  Preventive  Work,  held  in  the  Art  Insti- 
tute, Chicago,  Friday,  June  i6,  and  published  by  request  of  Committee  on 
Preventive  Work. 


DIAZ. 


45 


out  for  us  a  wondrous  demonstration  called  civilization.  It  offers 
much  that  is  desirable ;  but  as  human  beings,  born  to  live,  we  ought 
to  ask  if  it  is  carried  on  in  accordance  with  the  Law  of  Life ;  is  it 
making  the  best  of  each  one  of  us?  On  the  contrary,  throughout 
the  whole  range  we  find  conditions  which  absolutely  hinder  such 
development,  and  that  our  boasted  civilization  is  closely  joined  with 
human  sacrifice,  is  based  upon  loss  of  life.  The  term  "necessities  of 
life  "  is  made  to  refer  chiefiy  to  the  animal  necessities — food  and 
bodily  protection.  The  cost  of  living  is  calculated  on  these, 
whereas  all  that  makes  man  man  lies  beyond  the  animal. 

Let  us  consider  our  five  systems. 

First,  the  political  or  governmental.  Politicians  themselves,  who 
surely  know,  declare  this  to  be  utterly  corrupt,  ruled  by  bribery 
and  self-interest  acting  for  money-gain.  Corruption  means  a  loss  of 
the  saving  elements  of  character;  means  decay,  rottenness,  destruc- 
tion.    Life  cannot  come  from  corruption. 

Second,  the  commercial.  This  is  now  largely  based  on  the  animal 
propensities.  Its  dialect  is  animalism.  These  are  some  of  its 
phrases:  "They  are  at  our  throats,"  "Fight  'em  off,"  "Foxy," 
"  Kill  'em  out,"  "  They  want  our  blood,"  "  Run  'em  off,"  "  Roast 
'em  out,"  "  Crush  'em  out,"  "  Freeze  'em  out,"  "  Financial  vultures," 
"  Coal  cormorants."  Success  demands  "  the  strong  claw,"  "  the 
quick  eye,"  "the  swift  wing,"  "the  piercing  talon."  It  is  distinctly 
stated  that  moral  standards  are  not  to  be  maintained.  But  when  a 
double  standard  of  morals  is  recognized  as  satisfactory  it  is  time  to 
fly  the  danger-signals.  That  time  is  now.  In  speaking  of  a  deceased 
millionaire  whose  unscrupulous  "talon"  and  grasping  "claw"  had 
wrought  wide-spread  ruin  and  misery,  a  leading  paper  makes  this 
significant  statement — mark  well  its  import :  "  He  was  no  worse 
than  thousands  of  others  who  stick  at  nothing  short  of  crime  .  .  . 
he  was  not  dishonest,  judged  by  the  prevailing  rules  of  co7?imercial 
morality.''  And  of  a  very  prominent  politician  who  had  made  a  high 
governmental  position  serve  greatly  his  own  pecuniary  interests  it 
was  said:  "  While  a  desire  for  wealth  made  him  unscrupulous,  we 
have  looked  upon  him  as  neither  better  nor  worse  than  many  of  our 
'American  merchants  who  have  a  good  standing."  But  is  it  not  a 
matter  of  alarm  that  the  "great  mass  "  of  our  countrymen  acknowl- 
edge two  standards  of  action  and  adopt  the  lower?  Clearly  we  can 
look  to  neither  of  these  two  systems  as  a  means  of  developing  in 
humanity  its  highest  possibilities.  Yet  they  include  "  the  great 
mass"  of  our  people. 


46      INTERNATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  CHARITIES  AND  CORRECTION. 

Turning  to  our  third,  the  religious,  we  find  one  of  its  denomina- 
tional papers  regretting  "  the  connection  of  professing  Christians 
with  stock-gambling,  with  financial  jobbery,  and  with  knavishness 
in  business  management ";  and  a  recent  article  says  that  "  in  railroad 
finance  the  struggle  for  life  in  the  savage  contests,  the  slaughter  by 
right  of  might,  the  taking  from  the  weak,  goes  on  as  if  the  Chris- 
tian civilization  never  existed.  Christian  gentlemen,  good  family 
men,  endowers  of  hospitals  and  founders  of  colleges,  will  follow  a 
financial  rival  like  a  sleuth-hound,  and  slay  with  the  joy  of  a  Com- 
anche cutting  throats."  In  view  of  all  this,  and  of  the  general  lowering 
of  the  moral  standard,  we  may  say  of  our  third  system  that  it  has  by 
no  means  established  the  dominion  of  the  higher  human  qualities; 
and  it  should  be  added  that  by  its  imposition  of  creeds  and  doc- 
trines it  has  hindered  the  free  action  of  individual  mind,  and  thus 
antagonized  the  divine  law  of  individuality  as  shown  throughout 
creation,  the  human  creation  included. 

Our  fourth,  the  social  system,  is  rather  an  outside  affair,  its  social 
intercourse  being  conducted  chiefly  on  an  upholstery  basis  and  on 
more  or  less  elaborateness  in  the  preparation  of  food.  This  matter 
of  elaborate  feeding  acts  as  a  perpetual  hindrance  to  a  genuine  social 
intercourse  and  plenty  of  it.  As  the  chief  aims  of  our  social  system 
are  wealth  and  position  and  the  consideration  which  these  bring,  it 
has  a  tendency  to  foster  pride,  vanity,  rivalry  and  unworthy  ambition, 
and  it  cannot  therefore  be  relied  upon  as  a  means  of  that  high  and 
full  development  which  alone  is  life.  Moreover,  its  general  law — 
follow  the  leader — directly  hinders  individual  expression. 

Our  fifth,  the  educational  system,  has  been  chiefly  occupied  with 
instructing  rather  than  in  supplying  conditions  for  bringing  out  the 
complete  life-pattern  in  each  child  born.  Moreover,  it  has  not  yet 
discovered  that  the  work  having  the  first  claim  upon  it  lies  in  the 
direction  of  character.  Character  rules.  Teachers  should  aim  directly, 
but  work  indirectly,  the  purpose  not  being  made  apparent.  The 
province  of  the  home?  So  it  is.  But  beginning  at  the  social  top 
and  ending  witli  the  abodes  of  crime  and  abject  poverty,  or  with  the 
swarming  population  of  the  "  sweating  "  dens,  we  shall  find  very  few 
homes  having  the  requisites  for  so  difficult  a  duty — the  leisure,  the 
wisdom,  the  knowledge,  and  the  sense  of  responsibility.  The  fact 
that  these  cannot  be  generally  found  in  our  homes,  even  of  the 
better  sort,  reveals  a  strange  lack  in  this  fifth  system  of  ours ;  a  lack 
spoken  of  by  Herbert  Spencer  in  his  volume  on  Education.     He 


DIAZ.  47 

expresses  wonder  that  while  almost  everything  else  is  thought 
worthy  of  attention,  no  special  preparation  is  given  for  the  most 
sacred  and  important  duties  of  lifetime,  those  of  parents  and  home- 
makers. 

By  introducing  into  our  system  a  department  of  parenthood 
enlightenment,  and  by  giving  character  work  the  first  rank  as  an  aim 
of  education,  it  may  yet  come  about  that  the  sound  or  saving  traits, 
such  as  truth,  love,  justice,  honor,  integrity,  shall  be  put  in  the 
ascendant.  To  make  these  the  absolute  controlling  power,  to  sub- 
stitute their  dominion  for  the  dominion  of  self-seeking  and  greed 
and  rivalry  and  money,  to  do  all  this  would  surely  prove  a  true 
work  of  humanity  for  humanity,  and  it  should  begin  by  giving 
human  beings  an  idea  of  their  own  divine  possibilities  as  the  temples 
of  the  Living  God,  and  of  the  privileges  and  the  obligations  which 
are  theirs  by  reason  of  this  Divine  indwelling. 

While  waiting  for  so  desirable  a  state  of  things,  we  can  lessen  the 
evils  of  systems  one  and  two  by  extending  our  present  degree  of 
nationalistic  control.  This  now  includes,  in  greater  or  less  degree, 
the  management  of  schools,  of  mail-carrying,  of  all  military  affairs,  of 
roads  and  bridges,  of  public  libraries,  of  street-lighting  and  of  water 
privileges.  The  telegraph  and  telephone  can  be  added  at  once  and 
some  other  things  later.  Evil  conditions  are  lessened  according  as 
the  element  of  self-interest,  through  money  profit,  is  removed  ;  and 
the  government  of  any  country,  especially  of  a  republic,  is  made 
less  corrupt  according  as  it  is  freed  from  the  control  of  corporations 
and  of  personal  interests  generally. 

Should  it  be  asserted  that  these  latter  will  always  rule,  on  account 
of  the  badness  of  poor  human  nature,  let  it  be  counter-asserted  that 
we  do  not  yet  know  what  human  nature  is,  since  it  has  always  been 
under  damaging  restrictions  ;  also,  that  as  continual  progress  has 
been  shown  on  the  industrial  plane — by  application  of  the  more  and 
more  immaterial  forces — so  will  it  be  shown  in  the  higher  plane. 
Moral  progress  is  assured.  We  are  not  always  to  be  selfish,  any 
more  than  we  were  once  always  to  be  cave-dwellers,  limited  to  the 
industrial  use  of  stone  and  wood.  We  must  hold  fast  by  this  ideal 
of  excellence  in  order  to  bring  its  realization.  "  The  power  of  a 
living  principle,  or  a  longing,  or  a  hope,  or  ideal,  once  planted  in 
society  is  well-nigh  omnipotent." 


XHK 


Public  Treatment  of  Pauperism 


BEING  A  REPORT  OF 


THE   FIRST   SECTION    OF   THE    INTERNATIONAL   CONGRESS 

OF  CHARITIES,  CORRECTION  AND  PHILANTHROPY, 

CHICAGO,  JUNE,  1893 


EDITED  BY 


JOHN    H.    FINLEY,    Ph.D. 

Preside7it  of  Knox  College 


BALTIMORE 

THE  JOHNS  HOPKINS  PRESS 

LONDON 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  PRESS,  LIMITED 

438  Sliand,  W.  C. 

1894 


THE  WORLD'S  CONGRESS  AUXILIARY  OF  THE  WORLD'S  COLUMBIAN 

EXPOSITION. 


The  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Correction  and 

Philanthropy. 

president  : 
RUTHERFORD    B.    HAYES. 

FIRST  vice-president  :  SECOND  VICE-PRESIDENT  : 

FREDERICK  H.  WINES.  ROBERT  TREAT  PAINE. 

GENERAL  SECRETARY : 

ALEXANDER  JOHNSON. 

COMMITTEE  OF  ORGANIZATION  : 

FREDERICK    H.    WINES,   JOHN    G.    SHORTALL,    Mrs.    J.    M.    FLOWER. 
NATHANIEL    S.    ROSENAU,    Secretary. 


SECTION   I. 

The  Public  Treatment  of  Pauperism. 

chairman: 

ANSLEY   WILCOX, 
Charity  Organization  Society,  Buffalo,  New  York. 

SECRETARY : 

JOHN    H.    FINLEY,    Ph.  D., 
President  of  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  Illinois. 


Copyriglit,  1894,  liy  The  Johns  Hopkins  Press. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The   International   Treatment   of   the   Poor  Question.     By   Baron   von 

Reitzenstein  I 

Pauperism  in  Great  Cities;  Its  Four  Chief  Causes.     By  Robert  Treat 

Paine 23 

American  Administration  of  Charity  in   Public  Institutions,     By  Oscar 

Craig ^8 

Public  Relief  and  Private  Charity.  By  Charles  R.  Henderson  ....       89 

Tramps.     By  John  J.  McCook 97 

Vagrancy.     By  A.  O.  Wright      108 

Municipal  Provision  for  Shelter  of  Homeless  Poor  in  Boston — Temporary 

Home  for  Women  and  Children — Wayfarers'  Lodge  and  Woodyard 

for  Men.     By  Thomas  F.  Ring 117 

Free  Public  Employment  Offices  in  Ohio.     An  Experiment  in  Socialistic 

,    Legislation.  •  By  P.  W.  Ayres 124 

Pauperism  and  Crime.     By  John  B.  Weber  131 

The  Problem  of  Inebriate  Pauperism.     By  T.  D.  Crothers 140 

Causes   of    Pauperism   and  the    Relation   of  the   State  to  it.      By  A.  O. 

Wright 146 

The    English    Poor    Law:    Its    Intention    and    Results.     By    Mrs.    May 

McCallum 151 

Poor  Law   Progress  and  Reform,  Exemplified  in  the  Administration  of 

an  East  London  Union.     By  William  Vallance 158 

The  Work  of  the  London  County  Council  in  Relation  to  Public  Health 

and  the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes.     By  John  Lowles    .    .    .     172 
Private  Unofficial  Visitation  of  Public  Institutions.     By  Louisa  Twining  188 

Immigration  of  Aliens.     By  Arnold  White 191 

Charity  in  Belgium.     By  Prosper  Van  Geert 198 

Relief  by  Work  in  France.     By  Grosseteste-Thierry 207 

The  Austrian  Poor  Law  System.     By  Edith  Sellers 216 

Poverty  and  its  Relief  in  Austria.     By  Dr.  Menger 224 

Sketch  of  the  Organization  of  Public  Poor  Relief  in  Austria.     By  Fried- 

erich  Probst 230 

Poor  Relief  in  Vienna,  and  its  Reform.    By  Rudolph  Kobatsch     .    .    .     241 

Charity  in  Turkey.     By  T.  Flakky 284 

Procedings  and  Discussions 290 

Index 307 


THE  INTERNATIONAL  TREATMENT  OF  THE  POOR 

QUESTION. 

BARON  VON  REITZENSTEIN,  FREIBURG,  BADEN. 

Was  den  grossen  Ring  bewohnet, 
Huldige  der  Sympathie  ! 

I. 

Phases  of  Development  in  the  International  Treatme^it  of  the  Poor 

Qicestio7i. — Present  Outlook. 

The  need  of  uniting  the  nations  on  common  lines  of  action  for  the 
solution  of  the  problems  connected  with  the  poor  question  has  made 
itself  felt  since  the  middle  of  the  century  with  ever-increasing  force. 
The  constantly  growing  recognition  of  this  necessity  has  introduced 
an  element  into  the  development  of  these  questions  which  has 
exerted  an  increasing  influence  upon  their  treatment.  This  element, 
however,  is  not  entirely  new.  There  have  been  periods  before  in 
which  common  ideas  and  a  consequent  similarity  in  forms  of  organi- 
zation forced  the  nations  to  take  one  and  the  same  course  in  their 
methods  of  caring  for  the  poor.  These  periods  were  followed  by 
others  in  which  the  effort  to  emphasize  national  individuality  consti- 
tuted the  prominent  characteristic  in  the  development  of  the  question 
of  poor  relief.  History,  then,  presents  the  picture  of  a  rising  and 
falling  tide  in  the  influence  of  unity  of  ideas  upon  development — 
periods  in  which  the  prevailing  feature  was  to  work  on  common 
lines  alternating  with  those  in  which  national  individuality  was  the 
predominant  characteristic  of  development. 

The  transition  from  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  Renaissance  was  one 
of  those  periods  of  alternation  in  which  first  one  and  then  the  other 
idea  had  the  upper  h^nd.  In  the  Middle  Ages  poor  relief  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  church  and  of  the  institutions  which  she  had  founded. 
It  was  natural  that  identity  of  dogmatic  belief  and  of  ecclesiastical 
organization,  extending  far  beyond  the  limits  of  a  single  nation, 
should  determine  the  development  of  the  care  of  the  poor  in  a 


2  PUBLIC   TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

common  direction.  In  contrast  to  this,  in  the  following  period,  when 
church  separation  and  the  formation  of  independent  states  took 
place,  the  desire  became  prominent  to  find  within  individual  church 
communities  and  nations  distinct  forms  corresponding  to  the  con- 
ceptions which  had  there  won  recognition.  In  this  period  of  national 
differentiation,  the  points  of  contact  between  nations  resulting  from 
that  unity  of  ideas  and  organization  which  had  pervaded  the  life 
of  the  Middle  Ages  as  a  characteristic  feature  naturally  grew  less. 
The  intellectual  spirit  which  was  developed  by  the  philosophy  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  by  the  humanitarian  ideas  proclaimed  by  it 
gave  a  fresh  impulse  to  fraternity  and  union ;  but  this  movement 
also  succumbed  to  a  reaction.  The  reviving  and  growing  national 
feeling  among  civilized  nations  supplanted  these  cosmopolitan  tend- 
encies and  brought  again  into  greater  prominence  the  element  of 
national  individuality.  The  counter  movement,  which  has  been  the 
characteristic  feature  of  the  second  half  of  this  century,  has  been 
essentially  influenced  by  the  wider  relations  brought  about  through 
increased  facilities  of  international  intercourse,  which  could  not  fail 
in  turn  to  affect  the  interchange  of  views  in  the  realms  of  science. 
But  though  those  earlier  tendencies  resulting  from  a  common  feeling 
had  later  to  give  way  to  counter  tendencies,  they  were  not  entirely 
without  fruit  in  clearing  the  way  for  international  co-operation.  As 
many  of  the  institutions  which  sprang  from  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  which  extended  beyond  the  limits  of  single  nations 
have  been  preserved,  though  in  altered  form,  so  also  we  have  active 
among  us  to-day  numerous  influences  suggested  by  that  period  ol 
enlightenment.  Even  in  the  realm  of  purely  national  development 
many  an  organization  has  been  formed,  the  importance  of  which  has 
later  been  recognized  by  other  nations  in  the  revival  of  the  exchange 
of  ideas.  In  spite  of  these  alternating  waves,  the  result  has  been  in 
general  to  multiply  the  points  on  which  the  effort  to  bring  about 
international  unity  of  action  rests.  On  the  whole  this  development 
presents  itself  as  an  advance  towards  harmonious  action  on  a  larger 
scale. 

What  applies  to  the  material  results  applies  still  more  to  the  means 
for  bringing  about  these  results.  These  too  have  constantly  increased. 
The  realization  of  the  ideas  concerning  the  care  of  the  poor  that  had 
become  dominant  within  the  church  during  the  Middle  Ages  rested 
upon  church  doctrines  and  organizations  which  were  in  great  measure 
common   to   all   the   peoples   of  Christendom.      Even   to-day   the 


REITZENSTEIN.  3 

common  views  developed  within  each  individual  church  community- 
regarding  the  province  and  form  of  poor  relief  are  to  a  certain  extent 
a  happy  element  in  bringing  nations  to  a  closer  union.  In  the 
Illumination  Period  it  was  through  individual  exchange  of  opinion 
between  leading  men  and  through  literary  discussion  that  the  mutual 
clarification  of  ideas  was  chiefly  accomplished.  Even  to-day  these 
two  methods  are  those  which  give  the  best  prospect  for  progress  in 
the  line  of  greater  fraternity.  Indeed,  ever  since  de  Gerando's  great 
pioneer  work  first  gave  us  its  widely  influential  example,  the  collec- 
tion of  materials  referring  to  conditions  and  institutions  among  other 
nations  and  the  comparative  treatment  of  the  poor  question  based 
upon  such  information  have  constantly  gained  ground  in  literature. 
The  very  use  of  associations  to  which  we  owe  in  recent  times  the 
especially  powerful  impulse  given  to  this  common  treatment,  had 
its  beginnings  in  the  Illumination  Period,  and  upon  these  beginnings 
we  are  still  building.  But  association  life  in  its  development  during 
the  second  half  of  the  last  century  remained  pre-eminently  local. 
This  development  first  entered  on  a  wider  stage  through  the  influence 
of  the  recent  movement  which,  favored  by  the  extraordinary  growth 
of  facilities  of  intercourse,  has  ever  striven  to  extend  the  organization 
of  associations  to  the  widest  circles  and  over  as  large  a  territory  as 
possible.  The  effort  has  been  not  only  to  concentrate  the  forces 
within  the  limits  of  a  single  nation,  but  to  pave  the  way  for  united 
action  on  the  part  of  different  nations.  The  attempts  which  have 
been  made  in  this  direction  evidence  a  constantly  higher  degree  of 
perfection  of  detail  and  systematic  treatment. 

The  initiation  of  these  attempts  was  due  to  a  resolution  passed  by 
the  Socicte  d' Economie  Charitable,  in  Paris,  in  1855,  on  motion  of 
its  president,  Vicomte  de  Melun,  to  embrace  the  opportunity  afforded 
by  the  Paris  Exhibition  to  bring  about  an  international  conference 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  questions  referring  to  the  situation  of 
the  poorer  classes.  This  idea  met  with  approbation,  and  was  sup- 
ported especially  by  that  noble  philanthropist,  Ducp6tiaux,  inspec- 
tor-general of  the  Belgian  prisons.  The  holding  of  the  International 
Congress  of  Charities  in  Brussels  in  1856  was  owing  to  his  initiative. 
This  congress  was  followed  by  others,  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main  in 
1857,  and  in  London  in  1862,  which  latter  was  held  at  the  World's 
Fair  of  the  same  year.  The  strained  relations  which  resulted  from 
the  wars  of  1 864-1 871  were  not  propitious  to  the  further  progress 
of  this  development.     The  next  international  congress  did  not  take 


4  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

place  until  1880,  in  Milan.     This  was  followed  by  the  congress  held 
in  connection  with  the  World's  Fair  in  Paris  in  1889,  which  was  the 
immediate  forerunner  of  the  one  about  to  take  place  in  Chicago. 
The  common  aim  of  all  these  congresses  has  been  to  establish  a  per- 
manent organization,  in  order  to  secure  a  well-regulated  exchange  of 
experiences  and  views  between  experts  on  the  pauper  question  of 
different  nations,  not  only  at  the  congresses  but  also  during   the 
longer  or  shorter  intervals  between  them.     None  of  these  congresses 
has  had  any  permanent  success  in  this  direction,  however.     As  yet, 
the  maintenance  of  mutual  relations  during   these   intervals  rests 
rather  upon  the  national  associations,  which  have  in  increasing  meas- 
ure taken  cognizance  of  one  another's  work  and  made  all  the  materials 
pertaining  to  it  accessible  to  one  another.    The  extraordinary  activity 
shown  in  the  last  few  decades,  in  the  membership  of  associations  as 
well  as  in  the  establishment  of  new  associations,  must  be  welcomed, 
therefore,  as  an  advance  tending  to  further  the  growth  of  the  inter- 
national idea  of  the  treatment  of  the  poor.     The  example  of  Switzer- 
land, whose  time-honored  "Association  for  Public  Good"  {Gemei7i- 
7iutzige    Gesellschaff)  has  existed  since  the   year   18 10,  was    first 
followed  by  England,  through  the  formation  in  1857  of  the  "  National 
Association   for  the  Promotion  ol  Social  Science."     Each  of  these 
associations,  although  their  programme  was  much  more  comprehen- 
sive, took  special  interest  in  the  study  of  the  poor  question.     The 
associations   which   sprang  into   life   at   a   later   period  differ  from 
those  of  earlier  date,  in  that  the  sphere  of  their  activity  is  defined  by 
narrower  limits,  comprising,  for  the  most  part,  besides  the  care  of 
the  poor,  only  cognate  subjects,  such  as  the  care  of  discharged  pris- 
oners.    To  this  class  belong  the  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction,  founded  in  1874  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
the  German   Association  for  Poor  Relief  and  Charity  {Deutsche 
Verein  fiir  Armenpflege  und  WohlthaiigkeW)  which    dates    from 
the   year  1881,  and   the   Socieie   Interjiationale  pour   V Etude   des 
Questions  d'Assistaiice,  in  Paris,  which  owes  its  origin  to  the  impulse 
given  by  the  International  Congress  of  1889,  and  which  has  since 
been  in  full  activity.     In  Italy,  too,  national  charity  conferences  have 
been  held,  the  second  of  which  met  in   Florence  in  March  of  the 
present  year.     Although  the  Paris  society  calls  itself  international,  it 
differs  very  little  from  the  others;  not  only  is  it  composed  almost 
entirely  (its  board  of  directors  exclusively)  of  French  members,  but 
it  confines  its  regular  work  for  the  most  part  to  questions  connected 


REITZENSTEIN.  5 

with  the  French  poor.  Other  associations,  however,  interest  them- 
selves, when  occasion  offers,  in  the  work  of  other  countries.  The  great 
majority  of  the  members  of  all  these  societies  are  practical  workers 
in  the  care  of  the  poor.  The  fact  that  they  from  time  to  time  inform 
themselves  as  to  movements  elsewhere  has  manifestly  helped,  first, 
to  give  to  their  discussions  a  wider  scope,  and  thereby  to  bring- 
about  a  larger  participation  in  these  debates,  and  second,  to  heighten 
the  interest  in  the  international  treatment  of  the  question  within  the 
circle  of  experts  practically  engaged  in  the  care  of  the  poor.  Evi- 
dently connected  with  this  is  the  fact  that  the  practical  element  has 
become  the  greatly  preponderating  one  in  the  composition  of  inter- 
national congresses,  and  that  the  theoretical  philanthropist  has  gone 
to  the  rear.  The  majority  of  those  who  participate  in  these  gather- 
ings are  members  of  the  poor  boards  and  poor  relief  associations  of 
the  country  in  which  the  congress  is  held.  This  double  ^change  in 
the  composition  of  the  congresses  has  necessarily  resulted  in  the 
delimitation  of  the  subject-matter  of  the  discussions  and  in  giving  to 
them  a  more  precise  and  practical  turn. 

If  we  consider  the  wide  range  of  topics  discussed  at  previous 
international  congresses,  we  are  especially  struck  with  the  increasing 
definiteness  of  the  programme.  While,  in  the  programme  of  the 
Brussels  Congress  of  1856,  subjects  foreign  to  the  practical  working 
of  the  poor  administration  and  only  indirectly  connected  with  the 
care  of  the  poor,  as  for  example  the  question  of  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence, still  occupy  a  prominent  place,  the  programme  of  the 
London  Congress  of  1862  shows  a  far  greater  specialization  of  the 
subjects  considered.  Nevertheless,  of  the  two  questions  there 
proposed  for  discussion,  only  one,  the  compulsorj'  education  of 
neglected  children,  comes  within  the  province  of  the  care  of  the 
poor,  while  the  other,  compulsory  elementary  education,  lies  entirely 
outside  of  it.  The  policy  of  more  narrowly  defining  the  subject  was 
much  more  logically  carried  out  in  the  Milan  Congress  of  1880.  In 
framing  the  programme,  the  purpose  of  confining  the  discussions  to 
practical  questions  concerning  poor  relief  proper  was  kept  clearly 
in  mind.  Besides  these  questions,  only  special  ones  referring  to 
preventive  poor  relief  as  well  as  to  the  care  of  discharged  prisoners 
find  a  place  in  these  debates.  The  Paris  Congress  of  1889  moved  in 
the  same  direction.  This  congress  included  in  its  programme  the 
question  of  the  principle  and  limits  of  obligatory  poor  relief,  the 
manner  of  placing  children  to  be  supported  by  public  poor  relief,  the 


6  PUBLIC   TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

care  of  the  sick  poor  in  country  districts,  and  the  systematic  organiza- 
tion of  charity.     While  in  this  change  the  increasing  influence  of  the 
practical  element  shows  itself,  this  influence  is  manifested  still  further 
in  the  fact  that  the  treatment  itself  has  become  more  concrete,  and 
has  been  brought  in  closer  relations  with  the  peculiar  condition  of 
poor  relief  and  the  efforts  towards  reform  in  the  respective  countries. 
This  is  especially  the  case  in  the  last  two  congresses,  as  in  them  an 
unusually  large  number  of  the  participants  belonged  to  the  countries 
where  they  were  held.    The  transactions,  although  in  theory  intended 
to  be  rather  of  an   international   character,  in  practice  assumed  a 
decidedly  national  coloring.     This  comes  out  plainly  in  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Milan  Congress,  in  which  we  cannot  fail  to  recognize 
their   direct   bearing   upon   the   great   reform    questions   then  agi- 
tating Italy,  such  as  the  concentration  and  modification  of  endow- 
ments, the  centralization  of  administration  of  institutions  engaged  in 
outdoor  relief,  and  the  establishment  of  outdoor  sick  poor  relief  in 
the  country  districts.    The  same  is  true  of  the  Paris  Congress.    The 
resolutions  adopted  concerning  the  method  of  caring  for  children 
supported  by  charity,  and  of  establishing  outdoor  sick  poor  relief  in 
the  country,  touch  current  questions  of  reform,  and  reflect  in  general 
the  conception  of  the  problem  in  the  mind  both  of  French  specialists 
and  of  the  government.     Since  the  trend  of  reform  in  France  was 
largely  in  the  direction  of  the  extension  of  the  area  of  obligatory  poor 
relief,  it  was  in  keeping  with  the  local  situation  to  give  expression  to  the 
recognition  of  this  idea,  at  least  in  so  far  as  it  referred  to  those  poor 
who  are  unable  to  work.   The  fourth  subject  of  discussion,  the  syste- 
matic organization  of  charity,  goes,  to  be  sure,  much  farther.    Its  dis- 
cussion assumed  a  far  more  international  character,  and  included  the 
details  of  methods  in  operation  in  Germany,  England,  America,  and 
other  countries.    No  substantial  conclusion,  however,  was  arrived  at. 
It  was  agreed  to  postpone  action  until  the  next  congress.    The  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Charities,  Correction  and  Philanthropy  which 
will  assemble  in  Chicago  on  June  12  of  this  year,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary,  will,  therefore,  find  this  question 
an  open  one.    Of  course  it  will  be  taken  up  during  the  proceedings,  or 
at  least  touched  upon,  for  it  has  a  place  on  the  programme  of  two 
sections  of  the  congress,  the  first  and  the  sixth.     The  public  treat- 
ment of  poverty  is  assigned  to  the  former  as  the  subject  of  its  inves- 
tigation, and  to  the  latter  the  organization  of  the  activities  concerned 
with  the  care  of  the  poor  on  the  part  of  communes,  districts,  and  the 


REITZENSTEIX.  7 

State,  and  their  relations  to  each  other,  including  also  preventive  poor 
relief.  The  reports  to  be  submitted  by  the  latter  section  especially 
concern  the  demarcation  of  the  province  of  private  charity,  the  insti- 
tution of  the  almoner,  and  support  through  work.  These  preliminaries 
show  plainly  that,  in  so  far  as  it  is  contemplated  again  to  take  up  this 
fourth  question,  the  intention  is  to  enter  upon  its  treatment  with  a 
certain  amount  of  reserve.  It  appears  here  divided  into  its  several 
elements,  the  effort  being  made  first  to  obtain  complete  information 
as  to  the  conditions  under  which  different  systems  operate. 

There  are  only  too  good  reasons  for  this  reserve.  Even  if  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  question  at  the  Paris  Congress  had  not  suffered  from 
the  near  approach  of  the  close  of  the  congress,  a  definite  solution 
would  hardly  have  been  reached.  In  this  respect  it  is  unlike  other 
questions  treated  by  the  congress.  It  is  easy  enough  to  draw  con- 
clusions from  a  principle  which  is  recognized  as  valid,  or  to  discover 
the  proper  forms  of  applying  the  same  from  the  standpoint  of  general 
suitability.  Thus  it  is  easy  to  answer  affirmatively,  in  a  manner 
more  or  less  applicable  to  every  kind  of  condition,  the  question 
whether  the  organization  of  public  sick  poor  relief  is  a  necessity  in 
country  districts.  In  the  same  way  we  can  say  that,  as  a  rule,  the 
boarding-out  system  is  preferable,  where  the  question  relates  to  the 
mode  of  caring  for  children  maintained  at  public  expense.  Where, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  general  organization  of  a  charitable  system  is 
under  consideration,  inasmuch  as  the  system  has  grown  out  of  the 
previous  historic  development  of  the  nation  and  is  in  harmony  with 
the  national  character  expressed  in  the  constitution,  laws  and  policy 
of  the  government,  the  solution  of  this  question  can  for  the  most 
part  be  only  relative,  that  is,  it  can  be  said  to  be  valid  only  where 
certain  preliminary  conditions  exist.  This  is  the  case,  to  a  certain 
degree,  with  the  question  of  the  limits  within  which  the  principle 
of  obligatory  poor  relief  is  applicable,  limits  differently  defined 
according  to  the  manner  in  which  public  poor  relief  is  administered, 
the  measure  of  forces  at  the  disposal  of  the  administration,  and  the 
views  prevalent  as  to  public  poor  relief  and  its  relation  to  private 
charity.  Still  more,  however,  is  this  true  of  the  question  of  the 
practical  organization  of  poor  relief.  The  answer  depends  essenti- 
ally on  the  extent  to  which  this  organization,  according  to  existing 
concrete  conditions,  belongs  to  the  province  of  public  or  private 
charity,  and,  where  the  former  is  the  case,  on  the  character  of  the 
unions  upon  which  the  duty  of  relief  devolves.     Here  also  are  to 


8  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

be  further  considered  both  the  quantity  and  the  quality  of  the 
means  at  disposal  for  carrying  out  the  plans  of  organization.  If  a 
solution  of  the  problem  is  to  be  attained,  the  forms  and  operation  of 
each  of  the  systems  prevailing  in  different  countries,  as  well  as  the 
preliminary  conditions  upon  which  their  existence  depends,  must 
first  be  definitely  settled.  The  question  of  the  universal  adaptability 
of  arrangements  and  of  their  availability  for  introduction  among 
other  nations  is  by  no  means  left  out  of  view  here,  but  merely  takes  a 
second  place  in  our  deliberations.  Only  after  we  have  learned  to 
understand  the  conditions  under  which  the  separate  systems  of  poor 
relief  in  different  countries  operate,  can  we  proceed  to  the  examina- 
tion of  this  question. 

If,  then,  the  international  congress  about  to  convene  in  Chicago, 
as  we  may  expect  from  what  has  already  been  intimated,  wisely 
intends  to  confine  itself  to  the  study  of  these  opposite  systems  and 
the  preliminary  conditions  of  their  operation,  and,  upon  the  founda- 
tion of  the  agreement  as  to  these  questions  that  may  be  reached 
through  its  discussions,  to  shape  its  further  deliberations  in  regard 
to  the  absolute  value  and  adaptability  of  the  systems,  it  will  have 
made  an  important  step  forward  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject. 
We  shall  thus  enter  upon  a  path  more  extended,  it  is  true,  but  at  the 
same  time  a  safe  one  ;  a  path  on  which  the  steps  once  made  need 
not  be  retraced.  At  any  rate  such  a  treatment'may  lead  to  results 
which,  upon  every  future  reconsideration  of  the  subject,  will  be  looked 
upon  as  useful  and  welcome  points  on  which  we  can  rely. 


II. 

Points  of  Comparison  between  the  Charitable  Systems  of  Different 

Nations. 

In  the  discussions  to  date  as  to  the  most  practical  method  of  poor 
relief,  the  English-American  and  the  German  systems  have  been 
contrasted;  in  other  words,  the  Elberfeld  principle  with  that  which 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  charity  organization  societies.  First  of 
all,  therefore,  a  precise  statement  of  the  resemblances  and  differences 
between  these  two  systems  is  demanded.  The  greater  our  success 
in  this,  the  clearer  the  ground  for  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the 
question,  and  for  a  judgment  as  to  how  far  either  of  them  meets  the 
requirements  met  by  the  other. 


REITZENSTEIN.  9 

Both  movements  are  animated  by  a  common  purpose,  namely,  the  -v 
desire  to  secure  greater  individualization  in  the  administration  of  I 
charity.  But  while  one  of  them  seeks  to  accomplish  this  end  entirely 
through  the  medium  of  private  organization,  the  other  depends  for 
its  accomplishment  almost  wholly  upon  the  organization  of  public 
poor  relief.  Both  are  agreed  that,  in  order  to  secure  greater  indi- 
vidualism, the  active  participation  of  a  larger  proportion  of  the 
citizen  element  is  necessary  in  practical  charity  work.  Finally,  both 
may  be  viewed  in  contrast  with  the  system  now  in  operation  in 
France  and  Italy,  where  such  development  in  this  direction  as  it  has 
been  possible  to  attain  has  been  of  inconsiderable  importance.  The 
existing  conditions  are  there  unfavorable  to  such  development. 
Wherever  the  funds  for  the  support  both  of  public  and  private 
charities  are  derived  chiefly  from  endowments,  it  is  for  the  most 
part  impossible  to  draw  a  strict  line  of  demarcation  between  the  two. 
Besides,  the  will  of  the  testator  fetters  the  action  of  the  trustees  to 
such  a  degree  as  to  be  inconducive  to  any  extensive  enlistment  of  the 
citizen  element  in  this  service. 

France. — In  France,  under  the  ancient  regime,  attempts  were 
made  to  organize  the  systematic  care  of  the  poor  by  the  commune. 
But  these  efforts  remained  without  lasting  result,  because  in  their 
prosecution  the  needed  persistency  was  lacking  ;  and  because,  from 
and  after  the  seventeenth  century,  the  government  interested  itself 
exclusively  in  the  creation  of  new  hospitals,*  and  in  the  enlargement 
of  those  already  in  existence.  Since  that  date,  the  state  charitable 
system  has  had  these  institutions  for  its  centre.  This  policy,  after 
suffering  a  temporary  interruption  during  the  Revolution,  received 
a  fresh  sanction  in  the  reconstructive  legislation  of  the  year  V.  It  is 
upon  the  hospitals  that  the  care  of  the  poor  chiefly  devolves.  They 
are  supplemented  by  the  "  bureaus  of  charity  "  {bureaux  de  bienfais- 
ance)y  which,  as  organs  of  outdoor  relief,  stand  at  their  side.  The 
efficiency  of  both  is  limited  by  their  financial  resources,  which,  par- 
ticularly in  case  of  the  hospitals,  consist  mainly  of  the  income  derived 
from  endowments,  any  deficiency  in  which  must  be  supplied  by  vol- 
untary contributions  on  the  part  of  the  separate  communities.  On 
account  of  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  comprised  in  the  care  of 
poor  children  and  of  the  insane,  and  the  imperative  necessity  of  syste- 

*The  word  "hospital"  is  here  used  in  the  Continental,  not  in  the  English 
sense,  and  is  very  nearly  equivalent  to  our  English  "  home  "  or  "  asylum." — 
Translator. 


lO  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

niatic  care  for  these  classes  of  dependents,  the  primary  responsibihty 
for  such  care  has  been  laid  upon  the  departments.  A  recent  bill 
proposes  in  addition  to  compel  each  separate  community  to  provide 
relief  for  the  sick  poor,  the  cost  of  which  is  to  be  assessed  jointly 
upon  the  departments,  and  the  national  treasury,  according  to  a  fixed 
scale.  Nevertheless,  individuals  in  need  of  help  have  no  other  ulti- 
mate dependence  than  the  hospitals  and  the  charity  bureaus,  whose 
assistance  is  optional,  or  rather  is  measured  by  the  means  at  their 
disposal.  Scarcely  more  than  two-fifths  of  the  communities  have 
charity  bureaus ;  and  hospitals  are  usually  found  only  in  cities,  often 
only  in  the  larger  cities. 

Italy. — In  Italy  the  situation  is  similar ;  though  here  greater  pro- 
gress has  recently  been  made  in  the  application  of  the  principle  of 
obligatory  poor  relief.  Special  attention  may  be  called  by  way  of 
illustration,  to  the  sanitary  law  of  December  22,  1888,  which  requires 
the  communities  to  furnish  medical  aid  to  the  poor  ;  and  to  the  law 
of  June  30,  1889,  on  public  safety,  which  makes  provision  for  paupers 
unable  to  work.  Here,  as  in  France,  the  care  of  foundlings  and  of 
the  insane  devolves  wholly  or  chiefly  upon  the  provinces.  But  the 
way  was  not  effectually  cleared  for  a  reform  in  the  character  and 
for  the  centralized  control  of  endowed  institutions  and  other  chari- 
table establishments,  until  the  passage  of  the  act  of  August  3,  1862, 
and  especially  the  act  of  June  17,  1890.  In  Italy  also,  the  extent  of 
relief  granted,  in  many  departments  of  charity,  is  proportionate  to 
the  resources  of  the  institutions.  The  first  result  of  this  situation  is, 
as  has  been  intimated,  the  absence  of  any  distinct  boundary  line 
separating  public  from  private  charity.  Institutions  which  are  richly 
endowed  often  encroach  upon  the  customary  domain  of  private 
initiative ;  if  their  resources  are  restricted,  they  are  frequently  not  in  a 
position  to  meet  the  most  scanty  requirements.  Since  the  bulk  of  their 
income  is  derived  from  interest  on  endowments  and  from  voluntary 
contributions,  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  them  from  doing  their  work 
in  a  manner  characteristic  of  private  charity.  For  this  precise  reason 
it  is  difficult  to  assign  to  any  larger  organization,  based  upon  the 
systematic  utilization  of  voluntary  workers,  any  clearly  defined 
sphere  of  duty,  in  relation  to  either  public  or  private  charity.  But 
this  assignment  is  one  of  the  first  preliminary  conditions  for  the  suc- 
cess of  such  an  organization.  The  difficulty  growing  out  of  the 
restrictions  laid  upon  the  greater  part  of  the  work  of  institutions,  in 
consequence  of  the  obligations  and  limitations  imposed  upon  them  as 


REITZENSTEIN.  1 1 

endowed  institutions,  is  even  more  insuperable.  The  citizen  element 
is  unsuited  to  cope  with  these  hindrances,  for  the  superiority  of  this 
element  in  charitable  work  depends  upon  absolute  freedom  of  judg- 
ment and  of  action.  These  difficulties  are  further  enhanced  by  the 
fact  that  the  charitable  institutions,  in  the  discharge  of  their  functions, 
are  controlled  by  the  religious  orders,  especially  by  the  sisterhoods, 
or  employ  them  to  do  their  work.  These  are  the  causes  which  have 
prevented  the  systematic  organization  of  charity,  except  within 
narrow  limits,  in  France  and  Italy. 

The  efficiency  of  the  form  of  organization  which  has  been  given  to 
public  outdoor  relief  in  Paris,  and  its  administration,  under  the 
control  of  the  direction  de  V assistance  pnbliqtie,  by  the  bureaus  of 
charity,  aided  by  agents  of  both  sexes  {commissaires  and  dames  de 
bienfaisance'),  has  not  been  fully  demonstrated,  as  appears  from  a 
bill  lately  framed  for  the  reorganization  of  the  system.  In  the 
domain  of  private  charity  it  is  for  the  most  part  only  the  oeuvres  du 
travail,  working,  as  they  do,  in  restricted  areas  of  activity,  in  which 
the  need  for  a  better  organization  of  volunteer  workers  has  found 
emphatic  expression. 

The  situation  just  described  differs  from  that  in  England  and 
America,  on  the  one  hand,  and  in  Germany,  Austria  and  the  German 
cantons  of  Switzerland,  on  the  other,  in  the  following  respect.  In  all 
these  countries  the  principles  of  public  relief  are  substantially  the 
same.  The  granting  of  aid  is  confided  to  public  taiions,  whose  legal 
obligation  is  theoretically  absolute;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  not  limited  by 
the  amount  of  the  resources  in  their  possession.  The  service  is  not 
conditional  upon  the  procuring  of  the  necessary  funds,  but  the  pro- 
curing of  the  means  required  is  conditioned  upon  the  demands  of 
the  service.  In  this  fundamental  principle  of  relief  the  two  groups 
are  in  accord,  but  they  differ  widely  in  their  methods  of  carrying  it 
out.  This  difference  is  the  governing  factor  in  the  aforesaid  contrast 
between  English,  American  and  German  modes  of  application  of  the 
forces  of  private  initiative  in  the  administration  of  poor  relief. 

Eyiglajid. — The  most  salient  feature  of  the  English  poor  law 
system  is  its  characterization  by  a  fundamentally  broad  conception 
of  the  task  in  hand,  as  opposed  to  an  administrative  machinery  inad- 
equate to  meet  fully  the  demands  of  individualization.  This  wide 
conception  of  the  task  finds  clear  expression  as  early  as  1601,  in  the 
act  of  Elizabeth,  which  forms  the  point  of  departure  of  pauper  relief 
in  England.     That  act  expressly  extends  the  obligation  of  relief  to 


12  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

the  able-bodied,  who  are  to  receive  it  in  exchange  for  labor.  An 
obligation  so  far-reaching  naturally  demanded  for  its  discharge  the 
most  careful  specialization  on  the  part  of  the  officers  entrusted  with 
its  fulfilment ;  an  individualization  the  more  difficult  in  proportion  to 
the  loss  of  stability  in  the  condition  of  the  poor,  due  to  the  growth 
of  industries.  But  the  unions  upon  which  the  administration  of  the 
law  devolved  were  unequal  to  this  demand.  These  unions  were  the 
parishes ;  unions  of  dissimilar  capabilities,  which,  the  more  they 
assumed  the  form  of  special  organizations  intended  for  carrying  out 
the  aims  of  poor  relief,  the  more  they  lacked  intercommunal  life.  A 
lax  and  routine  performance  of  the  duties  pertaining  to  them  in  this 
regard,  by  the  administrative  organs  of  the  parishes,  was  almost 
universal  in  the  eighteenth  and  in  the  earlier  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Moreover,  the  attempts  made  to  remedy  this  defect 
by  a  larger  utilization  of  the  justices  of  the  peace  were  unproductive 
of  any  lasting  result.  The  latter  officials  were  devoid  of  special 
qualifications  for  the  undertaking  and  felt  no  lively  interest  in  it. 
The  want  of  administrative  capacity  in  the  communal  organization 
was  the  cause  of  evils  which  found  expression  in  the  enormous 
increase  of  the  poor  rates  and  led  to  the  great  reform  of  1834.  The 
process  of  disintegration  of  the  communal  organization,  occasioned 
by  the  formation  of  other  districts  for  various  administrative  pur- 
poses, was  the  negation  of  reform  of  that  organization  in  the  direction 
of  a  better  individualization  of  the  poor.  The  definite  abandonment 
of  the  search  for  a  remedy  in  this  direction,  therefore,  is  a  character- 
istic feature  of  the  amended  act,  which  substitutes  for  individual 
inquiry  into  the  circumstances  of  applicants  for  relief,  the  deter- 
rent influence  of  the  workhouse.  Since  the  maintenance  of  work- 
houses necessitated  larger  unions,  they  were  created  by  uniting 
parishes.  The  perfunctory,  mechanical  character  naturally  inherent 
in  the  administration  o/such  unions,  and  their  peculiar  lack  of  living 
relations  to  their  inhabitants,  resulted  in  devolving  the  duty  of  out- 
door relief  upon  salaried  under-officials  (relieving  officers).  These 
relieving  officers  are  unsatisfactory  to  an  extraordinary  degree.  The 
efficient  administration  of  out-relief  depends  not  so  much  upon 
mechanical  training  as  upon  knowledge  of  local  conditions  on  the 
part  of  the  officials  entrusted  with  it,  their  being  in  touch  with  the 
applicants  and  beneficiaries,  their  independent  judgment,  and  the 
degree  of  their  interest  in  the  success  of  the  administration — pre- 
requisites more  often  found  in  unsalaried  officers  taken  from  the  body 


REITZENSTEIN.  1 3 

of  the  people  than  in  paid  subordinates.  The  abundant  funds  with 
which  the  unions  are  supplied  intensifies  the  character  of  mechanical 
uniformity  which  thus  attaches  to  the  work  of  poor  relief  in  England. 
The  county  governments  have  little  share  in  this  work,  outside  of 
the  care  of  the  insane.  The  development  of  their  participation  in  it 
is  still  in  its  infancy. 

The  United  States. — The  influence  of  the  example  of  England  in 
the  form  given  to  American  institutions  explains  the  English  stamp 
upon  the  pauper  legislation  of  the  United  States.  Nevertheless,  we 
meet  with  important  differences.  For  instance,  the  workhouse 
principle  is  by  no  means  so  general  or  prominent  here  as  in  England. 
The  dominant  tendency  is  to  make  local  communities  chargeable 
with  the  care  of  their  poor,  instead  of  forming  unions  for  that 
purpose ;  and  more  is  done  by  the  states  than  by  the  English 
government.  But  here,  as  in  England,  public  relief  is  principally 
given  in  institutions.  What  out-relief  is  granted  is  here  also 
distributed  by  paid  under-officials.  The  perception  of  the  evils 
arising  from  out-relief  thus  administered,  evils  considerably  enhanced 
by  haphazard  private  benevolence,  has  produced  that  new  move- 
ment (which  continually  gains  ground  in  England  and  has  been 
transplanted  to  American  soil)  whose  double  aim  is,  by  voluntary 
organization,  to  secure  individualization  in  outdoor  relief  and  to 
restrict  public  relief,  as  far  as  possible,  to  institutions.  This  move- 
ment has  found  its  characteristic  expression  in  the  charity  organiza- 
tion societies.  The  chief  aims  of  these  societies  are  to  secure 
co-operation  between  all  local  private  charities,  central  supervision  of 
their  operations,  investigation  into  the  circumstances  of  each  appli- 
cant, and  careful  consideration  of  the  appropriate  means  to  be 
employed  in  each  case  ;  finally,  when  aid  is  deemed  requisite  and 
proper,  to  act  as  intermediary  in  procuring  the  same  and  if  necessary — 
at  least  this  is  the  case  with  the  societies  in  England — to  grant  it 
themselves.  In  these  societies  there  is  large  scope  for  the  utilization 
of  the  citizen.  The  machinery  of  public  poor  relief  has,  it  is  true, 
here  also  exercised  such  an  influence  in  the  way  of  example,  that 
many  of  these  societies  employ  paid  agents  as  visitors  to  the  poor, 
side  by  side  with  voluntary  workers  selected  from  among  their 
members  ;  and  sometimes  the  visiting  is  left  entirely  to  these  agents. 
This  occurs  very  frequently  in  the  English  societies,  while  in 
America  the  practice  is  to  make  larger  use  of  friendly  visitors  chosen 
from  the  members  of  the  society.     It  is  needless  to  add  that  women. 


14  PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

especially  in  America,  form  a  large  contingent  among  the  forces 
taken  from  the  circle  of  private  life  for  the  service  of  poor-relief 

Gerviany. — According  to  what  has  been  said,  the  reaction  against 
the  evils  which  have  sprung  up  in  connection  with  the  public  care  of 
the  poor  in  England  and  America  takes  the  form  of  organized 
private  charity.  In  Germany,  on  the  contrary,  the  effort  has  been 
chiefly  to  bring  about  the  needed  improvement  through  reforms  in 
the  machinery  of  public  poor  relief.  Above  all,  the  endeavor  has 
been  to  give  to  the  pauper  administration  such  an  organization  as 
would  render  it  capable  of  a  higher  degree  of  discrimination  between 
individuals.  Outdoor  relief  has  thus  succeeded  in  maintaining  for 
itself,  in  the  domain  of  public  care  of  the  poor,  not  only  an  important, 
but  even  a  largely  predominating  position.  This  development  was 
favored  by  the  fact  that  in  Germany,  in  contrast  with  England,  not 
only  was  the  task  a  more  limited  one,  but  the  government  had  at  its 
disposal  an  administrative  apparatus  better  fitted  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  special  purpose. 

Although  by  law  the  duty  of  caring  for  the  poor  in  Germany 
includes  the  able-bodied,  public  relief  is  in  fact  almost  everywhere 
bestowed  only  upon  those  who  are  entirely  or  partially  incapable  of 
work.  In  so  far  as  granting  aid  to  the  able-bodied  poor  has  been  a 
necessity,  such  aid,  as  a  rule,  has  been  afforded  by  means  lying  out- 
side of  the  province  of  poor  relief  proper.  By  the  imperial  law  of 
June  6,  1870,  and  the  Bavarian  law  of  April  29,  1869,  the  duty  of 
caring  for  the  poor,  thus  limited  in  fact,  devolves  now  in  principle 
upon  the  local  communities  in  all  Germany,  except  Alsace-Lorraine. 
Unequal  as  these  local  communities  are,  both  in  their  administrative 
and  financial  capabilities,  they  have  this  in  common,  that  their  sphere 
of  activity  includes  in  itself  the  various  tendencies  of  local,  communal 
life  ;  also  that  the  management  of  their  administration  is  in  great  part 
in  the  hands  of  citizens  elected  by  the  community.  Almost  without 
exception  this  is  especially  the  case  in  small,  rural  communities. 
To  the  elasticity  thus  secured  in  the  administrative  life  of  the  com- 
munity is  due  the  adaptability  of  the  community  for  individual  treat- 
ment in  the  bestowal  of  public  poor  relief  The  powers  incident  to 
this  branch  of  administration  are,  in  the  rural  communities,  mostly 
vested  in  the  local  municipal  authority  {^Ortsvorstand)  chosen  by 
the  community.  As  a  rule,  there  is  no  need  of  any  mediate  agency 
between  it  and  the  inhabitants,  since  in  these  smaller  commu- 
nities every  man's  condition  is  more  or  less  well  known,  and  the 


REITZENSTEIN. 


15 


local  authority  is  thus  in  position  to  act  from  personal  knowledge 
of  the  situation  and  the  individual.  At  any  rate  the  restrictive  idea 
in  the  treatment  of  applications  for  relief  by  the  local  authority 
reaches  its  full  development,  and  the  danger  of  supplying  relief 
beyond  the  need,  or  even  lavishly,  is  almost  wholly  prevented.  We 
find,  therefore,  in  the  rural  communities  in  general  no  such  increase 
of  the  burden  of  pauperism  through  laxity  of  management  as  was 
the  case  in  the  English  parishes  before  the  amendment  of  the  poor 
law.  In  the  towns  the  contrary  is  true,  especially  in  the  middle- 
sized  and  larger  ones.  Here,  by  reason  of  a  larger  area  and  a  denser 
population,  the  details  of  individual  cases  escape,  as  a  rule,  the 
immediate  knowledge  of  the  chief  authority,  so  that  special  interme- 
diate agents  are  required,  in  order  to  obtain  the  necessary  informa- 
tion. But  they,  too,  in  the  performance  of  this  part  of  their  task, 
have  not  infrequently  difficulties  to  contend  with.  In  fact,  instances 
have  not  been  wanting  in  which  the  burden  of  pauperism  reached 
disproportionate  dimensions,  on  account  of  the  inadequate  investiga- 
tion of  individual  cases.  For  these  evils,  however,  the  municipal 
organization  itself  presented  the  remedy.  It  is  a  leading  feature  of 
these  organizations,  that  while  salaried  officials,  trained  for  their 
vocation,  have  a  large  and  often  preponderating  share  in  their  direc- 
tion, on  the  other  hand,  private  citizens  are  designated  to  perform 
the  executive  and  controlling  functions  of  the  administration  in  the 
separate  city  districts,  who  must  attend  to  these  duties,  and  who  hold 
offices  of  honor  only,  therefore  without  salaries,  by  virtue  of  a  general 
political  obligation. 

We  owe  to  the  Prussian  Municipal  Law  of  November  14,  1808, 
the  great  work  of  the  never-to-be-forgotten  Minister  von  Stein,  the 
first  impulse  in  this  direction  and  its  application  also  in  the  domain 
of  poor  law  administration.  According  to  the  requirements  of  that 
act,  the  direction  of  poor  relief  in  every  town  is  in  the  hands  of  a 
so-called  bureau  of  charities,  {^Arniendirektioii),  a  body  composed 
of  the  burgomaster  and  other  members  of  the  magistracy,  town 
councilmen,  citizens,  and  in  certain  cases  also  of  clergymen  and 
physicians.     The  act  provides  that 

"  Under  this  directing  body  the  relief  of  the  poor  must  be  attended  to  solely 
by  committees  of  citizens,  and  the  town  for  this  purpose  must  be  divided  into 
suitable  poor  districts  ";  "it  is  the  duty  of  the  town  councilmen  and  citizens 
elected  on  the  committee  to  look  up  the  poor  in  tiieir  districts,  and  to  investi- 
gate their  condition  ;  but   it  devolves  upon  them  as  a  whole  to  care  for  the 


l6  PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

maintenance,  medical  care,  employment,  education  and  instruction  of  all  the 
poor  in  the  town  ;  the  entire  care  of  the  poor  is,  therefore,  entrusted  to  the 
citizens,  their  public  spirit,  and  the  benevolence  of  the  inhabitants." 

The  substance  of  these  provisions  afterwards  found  its  way  into  the 
town  constitutions  of  other  German  countries  also.  It  forms  the  basis 
of  that  organization  which,  first  called  into  existence  in  the  city  of 
Elberfeld  in  the  year  1852,  afterward  obtained  celebrity  under  the 
name  of  the  Elberfeld  System. 

The  cause  of  this  movement  was  here  too  the  increase  of  the 
burden  of  pauperism  through  defective  investigation.  Its  leading 
feature  was  the  endeavor  to  insure  such  an  examination  and  control 
of  each  case  as  to  render  it  possible  to  refuse  aid  to  those  not  in 
need,  and  at  the  same  time  to  grant  to  the  needy  adequate  and  suit- 
able assistance.  The  essential  element  in  this  reform  consists  chiefly 
in  the  multiplication  of  the  citizen  force  working  in  the  administra- 
tion of  poor  relief;  the  number  of  persons  entrusted  with  the  inves- 
tigation of  individual  cases — almoners  (^PJleger) — is  increased  to 
such  an  extent  that  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  the  poor 
is  assigned  to  each  visitor,  who  is  thus  placed  in  position  to  give  to 
each  case  individual  treatment.  As  a  precaution  against  attaching 
too  great  weight  to  the  personal  opinions  of  individual  almoners, 
aid  is  granted,  as  a  rule,  subject  to  certain  exceptions,  only  upon 
the  decision  of  the  district  board  (^B ezirkskommission) ,  a  body  in 
which  the  almoners  of  the  district  meet  under  the  chairmanship  of 
the  district-superintendent  (^Bezirksvorsieher).  For  the  regulation 
of  the  relations  between  these  district  boards  and  the  superior 
city  board,  the  principle  has  been  formulated  that  the  local  boards 
should  be  given  the  largest  possible  independence  of  action,  but 
uniformity  in  principles  and  methods  should  be  maintained.  The 
highly  favorable  results  attained  by  this  system  have  smoothed  the 
way  for  its  introduction  into  the  great  majority  of  the  medium-sized 
and  larger  towns  of  Germany.  It  follows,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
there  is  considerable  variation  in  detail,  corresponding  to  the  vary- 
ing conditions  in  the  different  towns.  This  so-called  system  only 
indicates  a  principle,  which  is  capable  of  being  more  or  less  fully 
carried  out  according  to  the  degree  of  interest  taken  in  the  work  by 
the  unpaid  visitors,  and  which  will  produce  the  best  results  only 
where  the  office  of  almoner  is  regarded  as  a  dignified  and  responsible 
one.  On  the  other  hand,  the  value  of  this  system  has  been  dimin- 
ished   in    exceptional    cases,    fortunately    rare    hitherto,    in    which 


REITZENSTEIN.  1 7 

•communes  have  subjected  the  citizen-workers  holding  these  offices 
to  the  control  of  paid  under-officials,  partly  with  reference  to  the 
communal  treasury,  partly  through  distrust  of  the  element  of  self- 
government,  or  through  tender  consideration  for  the  convenience  of 
the  inhabitants.  Whatever  progress  has  been  attained  in  the  man- 
agement of  poor  relief  in  the  larger  cities  is  principally  due  to  the 
application  and  development  of  this  principle.  By  means  of  it  a 
large  body  of  citizens  and  a  wealth  of  useful  forces  have  been  drawn 
into  the  domain  of  poor  administration  and  led  to  take  part  in  it ; 
and  the  poor  administration  has  been  to  them  a  school  of  public 
spirit  and  of  the  faithful  discharge  of  public  functions.  So  much  the 
more  has  this  been  so,  since  the  care  of  the  poor  is  precisely  one  of 
the  branches  of  administration  thus  far  least  influenced  by  political 
currents  of  opinion,  and  in  which  the  habit  of  a  purely  business 
management  has  been  preserved  in  an  especially  high  degree.  This 
training  of  forces  for  service  in  the  municipal  administration  has  in 
many  ways  inured  to  the  benefit  of  these  municipalities  as  a  whole. 
The  prospects  for  a  flourishing  future  development  of  the  care  of 
the  poor  in  German  towns,  therefore,  must  essentially  depend  upon 
the  universal  application  of  the  Elberfeld  system,  if  possible  ;  upon 
its  further  improvement  in  accordance  with  a  variety  of  conditions  ; 
and  upon  its  adapting  itself  to  the  changing  needs  of  the  pauper 
administration.  That  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  there  will  be 
many  difficulties  to  be  overcome  is  a  foregone  conclusion.  Such  a 
one,  for  example,  is  presented  by  the  mode  of  growth  of  many  large 
cities.  In  these,  following  the  example  of  England  and  America,  a 
greater  tendency  is  continually  manifest  to  assign  different  districts 
to  the  different  classes  of  the  population  or  to  the  different  trades. 
Commerce  and  industry,  labor  and  luxury,  dwell  in  separate  quar- 
ters. By  this  separation,  much  to  be  deplored  from  a  politico-social 
standpoint,  the  relations  between  the  wealthier  and  the  poorer  classes, 
which  depend  upon  personal  acquaintance  and  direct  intercourse,  are 
weakened.  The  exercise  of  the  duties  of  the  office  is  also  rendered 
much  more  difficult  on  account  of  the  distances  between  their  dwell- 
ings. We  must  regard  as  a  difficulty  not  less  formidable  the 
probable  modification  in  the  scope  and  character  of  relief  due  to  the 
impending  change  in  the  condition  of  the  laboring  class.  On  the 
one  hand,  we  may  anticipate  a  diminution  in  the  demand  for  relief 
in  consequence  of  the  increased  amount  of  life  insurance  by  working- 
men,  though  it  is  impossible  to   arrive   at   even   an   approximate 


1 8  PUBLIC   TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

estimate  of  its  extent,  and  although  we  must  utter  a  warning  against 
the  over-appreciation  of  this  tendency.  It  may  already  be  regarded 
as  certain  that  that  portion  of  the  laboring  class  reached  by  insurance 
is  to  a  great  extent  raised  above  the  level  of  pauperism.  But  on  the 
other  hand,  the  burden  of  relief  is  increasing  through  the  growing 
influx  into  the  larger  towns  of  the  indigent  classes  of  the  population, 
and  through  the  more  and  more  unreliable  and  irregular  character  of 
production  in  consequence  of  the  rapid  changes  in  methods  of  manu- 
facture and  in  the  condition  of  the  market.  This  change  is  the  cause 
of  temporary  want  of  work,  which  ever  assumes  a  more  important 
rank  among  the  causes  of  poverty.  While,  as  before  mentioned, 
the  operation  of  the  machinery  of  municipal  relief  is  rendered  easier, 
because  its  function  is  so  often  limited  to  the  care  of  the  poor  who 
are  unable  to  work,  this  favorable-  condition  will  in  the  future  be 
much  less  frequently  met  with.  The  task  therefore  remains,  to 
adapt  the  system  in  a  practical  way  to  the  care  of  those  temporarily 
out  of  work,  regarding  whom,  no  fixed  rules  have  yet  been  agreed 
upon  in  Germany.  Consequently,  the  problem  of  relief  of  the  able- 
bodied  poor,  with  which  the  English  system  has  busied  itself  from 
the  very  beginning,  must  be  classed  in  Germany  with  questions 
which  have  not  yet  found  a  definite  and  fundamental  answer.  The 
somewhat  unsystematic  and  isolated  efforts  made  by  public  admin- 
istrative boards  and  by  associations  more  and  more  clearly  prove  the 
necessity  which  exists  for  its  solution. 

There  is  a  broad  field,  therefore,  for  reform  in  the  care  of  the  poor, 
even  in  the  towns.  Still  more  is  this  the  case  in  the  country.  In 
the  towns,  through  the  application  of  the  Elberfeld  system,  a  suffi- 
ciently intense  charitable  activity  has  been  in  many  instances  insured, 
together  with  a  thorough  inquiry  into  individual  cases  of  distress  and 
the  rejection  of  unfounded  claims.  It  is  otherwise  in  the  country, 
where  the  aid  granted  is  only  too  often  inadequate  and  far  below  the 
actual  need,  on  account  of  the  deficient  resources  of  many  commu- 
nities, which  makes  it  the  policy  of  the  local  bureaus  of  charity 
to  restrict  the  giving  of  relief  within  the  narrowest  possible  limits. 
Here  a  remedy  has  been  soughtmiainly  in  the  direction  of  imposing 
upon  the  larger  unions  a  greater  relative  share  of  the  expense,  partly 
by  assigning  to  them  particular  branches  of  poor  relief,  partly  by 
assessing  them  for  the  expense  of  the  local  care  of  the  poor ;  and  in 
numerous  instances  service  of  this  kind  has  been  voluntarily  rendered 
by  them.     The  attempts  of  which  we  are  speaking  lie  entirely  within 


REITZENSTEIN.  ig 

the  discretion  of  the  local  legislatures  of  the  several  provinces  or  in 
the  region  of  the  autonomy  of  the  unions  concerned.  In  this  single 
fact  we  may  see  why  these  attempts  are  so  widely  divergent  in 
respect  of  the  application  both  of  principles  and  methods.  Here, 
too,  greater  clearness  in  the  development  of  principles  is  needed. 
The  complete  transfer  of  the  care  of  the  poor  in  rural  districts  to 
larger  poor  unions,  each  to  be  formed  out  of  a  number  of  communes 
and  manors,  though  advocated  by  many,  meets  with  some  obstacles 
arising  from  the  peculiarities  of  the  German  communal  system,  and 
it  would  in  any  event  be  disadvantageous,  in  so  far  as  it  would 
tend  to  detach  the  relief  of  poverty  from  its  hitherto  close  relations 
with  the  other  branches  of  local  administration,  and  to  disrupt  the 
central  bond  of  union  between  the  various  administrative  functions. 
It  is  doubtful  whether,  in  poor  unions  of  this  kind,  an  organization 
modeled  after  the  Elberfeld  system  could  be  successfully  intro- 
duced, since  one  of  the  essential  preliminary  conditions  of  that 
system,  namely,  the  effective  control  of  the  individual  almoner  by  the 
joint  action  of  other  almoners  equally  familiar  with  all  the  circum- 
stances, would  be  impossible  to  establish  in  unions  composed  of  a 
number  of  communes. 

Austria  and  Szvitzerlayid. — The  condition  of  Austria  and  German- 
Switzerland,  though  not  exactly  the  same  as  in  Germany,  is  yet 
similar.  In  both  countries,  individual  treatment  in  public  poor  relief, 
according  to  the  Elberfeld  system,  is  less  general,  even  in  the  larger 
towns,  than  in  Germany ;  for  not  until  recently  has  a  beginning 
worthy  of  attention  been  made  in  this  direction.  In  Switzerland  it 
was  principally  the  reorganization  of  the  local  government  of  Zurich, 
brought  about  by  the  consolidation  of  the  suburbs  with  the  city, 
which  was  the  occasion  of  a  movement  in  this  direction,  merely  ten- 
tative as  yet.  The  difficulties  with  which  poor  relief  has  to  contend 
in  the  rural  districts  are  in  Austria  still  greater  than  in  Germany, 
especially  since  the  co-operation  of  the  larger  unions  is  less  devel- 
oped there  than  in  Germany.  In  a  bill  lately  proposed  by  the  gov- 
ernment and  passed  by  the  legislature  of  Lower  Austria,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  transfer  the  care  of  the  poor  to  larger  unions  and  to 
organize  it  upon  the  Elberfeld  system  ;  this  measure,  however,  failed 
to  receive  the  sanction  of  the  Crown.  In  Switzerland,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  cantons  usually  do  more  in  the  way  of  sharing  the  burden 
of  local  poor  relief  than  do  the  larger  unions  in  Germany.  But  the 
peculiarity  of  the  situation  is  that  in  the  majority  of  the  cantons 


20  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM, 

the  obligation  to  relieve  ordinarily  devolves  upon  the  home  com- 
mune as  distinct  from  the  local  commune.  But  there  is  an  appar- 
ently growing  movement  in  opposition  to  this  relic  of  communal 
development  belonging  to  a  historical  epoch  long  since  obsolete. 

Adaptability  of  the  Elberfeld  System. 

Among  those  organizations,  then,  which  are  the  result  of  the  devel- 
opment of  poor  relief  in  Germany,  and  which  have  at  present  reached 
a  certain  completion,  the  one  known  as  the   Elberfeld  system   is 
plainly  that  which,  originally  limited  in  its  application  to  the  larger 
and  medium-sized  towns,  has  received  proportionately  the  greatest 
measure  of  recognition  and  has  the  best  prospect  of  extension  of  its 
sphere  of  operation.     Of  late  much  study  has  been  given  to  the 
question  of  transplanting   it  to  other  countries,   to    England   and 
America  in  particular.     The  expediency  of  such  a  transfer   is  not 
negatived  by  the  growth  of  charity  organization.     Although  both 
systems  rest  upon  the  same  principle,  in  so  far  as  charity  organiza- 
tion also  aims  as  far  as  possible  to  secure  individualization  in  charity 
by  attracting  to  it  the  personal   force  which    resides   in  voluntary 
service,  yet  the  significance  of  such  an  enlistment  of  forces  is  less 
in  the  domain  of  private  than  in  that  of  public  charity.     In  the  first 
place,  the  realization  of  this  idea,  if  confined  within  the  limits  of 
private  charity,  must  always  fluctuate  more  or  less   in  accordance 
with  the  views  of  the  persons  who  direct  it  and  with  the  temporary 
mood  of  influential  circles  of  the  population.     But  in  the  domain  of 
public  charity  it  rests  upon  the  communal  organization,  so  that  a 
more  durable  foundation  can  be  laid  for  it  in  the  legal  obligation  of 
citizens  to  respond  to  the  demands  of  the  service  in  question,  and 
upon  this  foundation   a  more  enduring  structure   can  be   erected. 
A  second  essential  difference  results  from  the  fact  that  the  develop- 
ment of  private  charity  must  lead  to  a  delimitation  of  the  sphere  of 
operation  of  public  poor  relief,  which  will  therefore  be  more  extended 
in  the  country  than  in  towns;  for  in  the  country,  organizations  for 
private  relief  will  not  spring  up  in  equal  number,  nor  will  they  be  so 
strong.     If,  therefore,  the  existence  of  such  organizations  in  towns 
makes  it  possible  to  entrust  to  private  initiative  that  part  of  the  care 
of  the  poor  in  which  individual  treatment  is  most  necessary,  in  other 
words,  outdoor  relief,  the  same  cannot  be  the  case  in  the  country. 
This  difference  in  the  demarcation  of  the  sphere  of  activity  of  public 
poor  relief  must  prove  an  obstacle  to  its  further  development  not  to 


REITZENSTEIN.  21 

be  lightly  estimated.  The  Elberfeld  system,  therefore,  has  this 
argument  in  its  favor,  that  it  secures  individualization  within  the 
domain  of  public  poor  relief  itself.  Corresponding  organizations  of 
private  charity  in  connection  with  this  will  not  be  by  any  means 
superfluous. 

To  the  establishment  of  organizations  of  this'sort  within  the  prov- 
ince of  public  poor  relief,  so  far  as  England  is  in  question,  an  obstacle 
will  exist,  so  long  as  the  duty  of  relieving  distress  devolves  upon 
special  unions  created  exclusively  for  that  purpose.  In  these  there 
will  never  be  begotten  the  lively  communal  public  spirit  demanded 
in  order  to  give  the  requisite  moral  impulse  to  the  work  of  almoners 
selected  from  among  the  citizens.  There  seems,  however,  no  pros- 
pect of  a  reform  in  the  constitution  of  the  English  commune  looking 
to  the  inclusion  of  the  care  of  the  poor,  together  with  the  other  func- 
tions of  local  governments,  within  the  working  sphere  of  an  undivided 
local  commune. 

In  this  respect,  the  situation  in  America  is  more  favorable.     Here, 
at  least,  where  the  township  system  prevails,  the  communes  and  the 
pauper   districts  have  the  same  geographical  boundaries.     But   a 
difficulty  of  another  sort  here  grows  out  of  the  wide-spread  practice 
of  regarding  public  office,  even  in  local  administration,  as  a  spoil  of 
party  politics  and  a  means  of  perpetuating  party  control.    This  is  obvi- 
ously incompatible  with  the  proper  administration  of  charity,  particu- 
larly of  municipal  outdoor  relief.    This  conviction  is  a  principal  reason 
why  American  authorities  on  the  problems  of  poverty  regard  the 
furnishing   of  relief  by    municipalities,   outside   of  institutions,   as 
dangerous,  and  recommend  that  this  form  of  relief  be  left  to  private 
benevolence.     Especially  in  the   National   Conference  of  Charities 
and   Correction   in    1891,    this   view   received    distinct   expression, 
though   not   without   encountering    a    no   less  decided    opposition. 
Others,  on  the  contrary,  point  out  the  necessity  of  emancipating 
municipal  government,  in  the  interest  of  honest  and  economical 
administration,  from  the  influence  of  party  rule,  and  of  resting  it,  as 
in  Germany,  upon  the  basis  of  a  participation  in  it  by  the  citizens  of 
universal  obligation,  entirely  free  from   any  admixture  of  political 
considerations.     In  keeping  with  this  opinion,  and  as  a  feature  of 
municipal  reform,  the  organization  of  relief  in  cities  upon  the  basis 
of  the  Elberfeld  principle  is  advocated.     This  is  the  point  of  view 
lately  presented  with  such  ability  by  Professor  F.  G.  Peabody.    His 
eloquent  exposition  of  his  theory  could  not  fail  to  meet  a  hearty 
response  and  approval  in  Germany. 


22  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

The  charity  organization  movement  might  be  made  a  valuable 
first  step  in  the  direction  of  the  adoption  of  the  Elberfeld  system. 
The  enlistment  of  individual  workers  by  these  societies  for  service, 
although  at  first  only  in  the  voluntary  care  of  the  poor,  will  never- 
theless accustom  them  to  a  businesslike  and  cautious  treatment  of 
cases  needing  relief.  Through  the  training  thus  given  these  forces 
become  available,  also,  for  the  purposes  of  public  poor  relief. 

But  it  would  be  a  one-sided  view  to  consider  that  movement  from 
this  standpoint  alone.  For  us  also  it  is  more  than  merely  a  transition 
stage.  This  co-ordination  of  efforts  and  forces  in  private  charity, 
forming  as  it  does  the  fundamental  trait  of  the  movement,  has  a 
value  of  its  own,  independent  of  any  relation  to  the  future  reform  of 
public  poor  relief.  Organizations  working  for  this  end  are  a  need 
also  with  us,  which  heretofore  has  been  felt  in  a  less  degree  only 
because  we  were  able  to  remedy  a  portion  of  the  evils  in  the  domain 
of  public  poor  relief,  and  because  reform  in  that  domain  was  for  us 
the  primary  necessity.  We,  too,  feel  more  and  more  keenly  the 
importance  of  securing  a  systematic  interlocking  of  the  activities  of 
private  charity  now  working  so  far  apart;  and,  indeed,  beginnings 
worthy  of  notice  have  been  recently  made  in  this  direction.  In  the 
effort  to  perfect  our  organizations  in  this  respect,  we  can  make  use  of 
the  experiences  of  the  charity  organization  movement  of  England 
and  America  as  valuable  guides. 

Thus,  upon  another  field  we  receive  back  again  that  which  we 
were  able  to  give,  by  setting  up  a  model  for  the  organization  of 
public  poor  relief;  we  take  part  in  a  competitive  contest  and  com- 
merce, in  which  the  noblest  conquests  of  the  mind  become  objects 
of  reward  and  exchange.  The  differences  that  exist  between  these 
methods  are  not  comparable  with  what  they  possess  in  common. 
Each  desires  to  interest  workers  who  will  busy  themselves  with  the 
condition  of  their  suffering  fellow-citizens  ;  and  in  caring  for  the 
same  we  may  discern  in  both  actively  at  work  the  teachings  of  Him 
who  has  in  the  command  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves  laid 
down  a  rule  of  conduct  and  given  a  watchword  for  all  social  develop- 
ment, which  shall  one  day  unite  all  the  world  in  the  bond  of  brother- 
hood. The  words  of  the  great  poet  which  I  have  placed  at  the 
head  of  my  paper  are  penetrated  through  and  through  by  this 
spirit  of  brotherhood.  They  are  an  admonition  from  the  past  to  the 
present  century  to  press  forward  to  the  ideal  of  peaceful  agreement 
and  hearty  co-operation  between  nations  in  the  great  questions  of 


PAINE.  23 

civilization,  as  we  have  received  this  ideal  from  the  intellectual 
movement  of  those  times.  And  they  are  also  a  greeting  from  the 
Old  World  to  the  New,  from  Germany  to  America,  an  expression  of 
the  warm  interest  with  which  we  are  following  the  great  movement 
now  in  progress  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  a  stimulus  to  earnest, 
united  effort  for  the  elevation  of  humanity,  which  is  the  solution  of 
the  questions  which  agitate  mankind.  May  the  hopes  which  we,  too, 
cherish  for  success  in  this  undertaking  be  richly  fulfilled  ! 


PAUPERISM  IN  GREAT  CITIES:  ITS  FOUR  CHIEF 

CAUSES. 

ROBERT   TREAT   PAINE,    PRESIDENT   OF   THE    ASSOCIATED 
CHARITIES   OF   BOSTON. 

The  problem  of  poor  relief  in  great  cities  requires  to  be  re-stated 
in  ampler  terms.  The  diseases  of  society  are  more  aggravated,  the 
dangers  are  graver,  the  need  of  radical  remedies  is  more  absolute, 
than  the  new  charity  has  yet  fully  and  fairly  faced. 

This  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  witnessed  a  noble  outburst  of 
the  energies  of  good  men  to  help  suffering  brethren. 

"Science  and  sympathy"  have  been  moved  to  do  their  utmost, 
under  such  fiery  inspiration  as  that  of  Phillips  Brooks  when  he  threw 
the  whole  power  of  his  support  into  the  movement  to  create  the 
Associated  Charities  of  Boston.     [Speech  of  March  12,  1879.] 

The  world  is  brighter  and  better  for  the  devotion  of  the  great 
galaxy  of  noble  men  and  women  all  through  the  civilized  world,  who, 
seeing  how  the  problem  needs  wisdom,  bring  to  it  deep  and  faithful 
study,  and  how  it  needs  their  sympathy  and  aid,  bring  to  it  loving 
devotion. 

These  are  the  men  and  women  who  are  making  this  world  fit  to 
live  in  and  this  life  worth  living. 

When  the  poor  sink  below  their  poverty. into  pauperism,  and 
pauperism  becomes  hopeless  and  degraded  and  brutal ;  when 
powerful  and  prolific  causes  are  at  work  to  swell  the  rising  tide  ; 
the  day  has  gone  when  it  is  enough  to  go  on  dealing  with  details. 


24  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

Society  must  study  till  it  knows  the  whole  measure  of  the  problem^ 
seek  whatever  heroic  measures  can  remedy  the  evils,  and  especially 
can  cut  off  the  supply,  and  invoke  all  the  powers  in  our  modern  life 
of  wisdom,  energy  and  love,  under  the  guidance  and  inspiration,  and 
with  firm  faith  in  the  aid,  of  God. 

Conditions  of  Life  in  Large  Cities. 

The  conditions  of  life  in  our  great  cities  excite  deep  concern.  Pass 
them  in  brief  review.  The  growth  of  city  population,  rapid  and 
irresistible,  compels  the  prophetic  imagination  to  ask,  but  in  vain, 
what  is  to  be  the  limit  of  the  number  of  souls  in  London  and  Paris^ 
New  York,  Chicago  and  Philadelphia,  and  even  in  Baltimore  and 
Boston. 

With  population,  rents  rise  so  that  the  average  man,  that  is  the 
masses  of  the  people,  are  forced  to  live  in  utterly  unfit  homes,  fear- 
fully overcrowded ;  hence  low  vitality  of  body  and  soul,  diseased 
morals  and  diseased  bodies. 

The  extremes  of  society  grow  more  pronounced,  so  that  from  the 
increasing  numbers  of  the  very  poor,  a  larger  residuum,  Charles 
Booth's  Submerged  Tenth,  Charles  Loring  Brace's  Dangerous 
Classes,  reach  such  proportions  that  they  can  no  longer  be  dealt 
with  in  detail  and  hopefully  as  individuals,  but  fill  up  whole  areas  like 
that  great  ward  in  Liverpool,  crowded  with  the  dock  laborers,  where 
the  level  of  life  is  at  such  uniform  dead  low  tide,  that  to  uplift  a  part 
is  impossible  without  uplifting  the  general  level  of  all,  and  the  idea 
of  uplifting  the  whole  suggests  attacking  the  Atlantic  ;  to  me  the 
saddest  spectacle  of  hopeless  despair  I  have  ever  anywhere  beheld,. 
Liverpool's  Dead  Sea. 

Society  by  its  loving  energies  can  deal  with  evils  in  detail,  but  who 
can  find  the  remedy  when  evils  of  all  kinds  are  aggregated  into  a 
vast  mass  at  a  uniform  low  level  of  degradation,  destitution  and: 
despair? 

Strong  drink  is  almost  the  sole  solace  of  their  dull  routine.  Satur- 
day night  and  Sunday  find  so  many,  that  it  seems  a  large  proportion, 
sodden  with  drink,  the  aged  as  well  as  those  in  youth,  even  babies 
at  the  breast.  Nay,  let  me  recall  the  words  of  the  chief  of  police  as 
he  took  me  through  these  sights  of  sadness,  children  begotten  by 
drunken  parents,  born  of  drunken  mothers,  nursed  by  drinking, 
mothers,  and  thus  saturated  with  liquor  from  the  start. 


PAINE.  25 

Crimes  of  violence,  crimes  of  lust,  crimes  against  property,  not  only 
prevail,  but  cease  to  shock,  where  the  general  level  of  life  has  lapsed 
into  a  new  phase  of  barbarism. 

What  hope  for  boys  and  girls  growing  up  in  such  atmosphere 
of  sin,  in  overcrowded  cities  from  which  playgrounds  have  been 
excluded  by  rising  rents ;  playgrounds  for  the  innocent  outpouring 
of  the  boys'  animal  spirits  which  will  have  some  vent,  if  not  in 
hockey  and  football,  then  in  breaking  into  empty  buildings,  stealing 
lead  pipes,  and  stoning  dispensary  doctor^  or  police  with  even-handed 
delight. 

Yet  critics  say  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast  London  "  is  a  bit  over- 
drawn. 

"  We  have  opened  but  a  little  way  the  door  that  leads  into  this  plague-house 
of  sin  and  misery  and  corruption,  where  men  and  women  and  little  children 
starve  and  suffer  and  perish,  body  and  soul.  We  shall  not  wonder  if  some, 
shuddering  at  the  -revolting  spectacle,  try  to  persuade  themselves  that  such 
things  cannot  be  in  Christian  England,  and  that  what  they  have  looked  upon 
is  some  dark  vision  conjured  up  by  a  morbid  pity  and  a  desponding  faith.  To 
such  we  can  only  say.  Will  you  venture  to  come  with  us  and  see  for  yourselves 
the  ghastly  reality  ?"     [Page  20.] 

What  is  my  conclusion  ?  Shall  I  not  say  that  in  the  largest  cities 
where  conditions  are  worse,  and  the  evils  of  pauperism,  grown 
chronic  and  contagious,  are  blended  with  habits  of  drunkenness  and 
other  vice,  breaking  out  into  crimes  against  the  law,  pauperism 
cannot  be  wisely  considered  alone,  but  the  problem  of  how  to  uplift 
the  general  level  of  life  must  be  studied  as  one  whole  problem, 
especially  as  to  the  causes  of  the  evils  ? 

Boston  can  speak  words  of  encouragement.  Boston  is  of  just  the 
size  for  the  best  study  of  the  data,  as  well  as  a  successful  combina- 
tion of  forces  for  a  thorough,  encouraging  and  permanent  success. 
I  rejoice  to  be  able  to  say  that  in  Boston  the  conditions  of  life 
among  working  people,  countfng  all,  even  those  on  the  lowest  levels, 
are  on  the  whole  visibly  improving. 

Does  not  this  same  encouraging  condition  prevail  amongst  most 
of  the  smaller  cities  of  the  United  States?  Have  not  the  various 
agencies,  working  together  for  good  in  the  social  awakening  and 
religious  life  of  our  times,  attained  such  vigor  that  they  are  waging 
winning  war  against  the  forces  which  drag  life  down?  On  the 
whole,  are  not  things  mending  rather  than  growing  worse? 

What  more  can  I  hope  to  achieve  on  this  point,  than  to  fasten  the 


26  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

acute  observations  of  leaders  in  each  city  on  this  exact  question, 
whether  the  sta7idard  of  life  of  working  people  is  rising  or  falHng  ? 

In  New  York  and  London,  no  doubt  in  Paris  and  Berhn,  the  data 
are  largely  different.  I  hope  I  am  wrong  when  I  express  the  fear 
that  in  these  cities  the  general  tide  is  still  falling,  in  marked  contrast 
to  its  rise  in  almost  all  other  cities  of  less  size. 

But  what  hope  is  there  for  these  four  greatest  cities — may  I  add 
Chicago — unless  they  are  stirred  to  superhuman  efforts,  in  part  at 
least  by  candid  and  friendly  criticism  ? 

Pauperism  Assuming  a  Worse  Type  in  Large  Cities. 

One  main  purpose  of  my  paper  is  now  to  draw  attention  to  this 
tremendous  fact,  that  pauperism  is  assuming  a  new  and  more  terrible 
type  in  the  largest  cities,  where  paupers  have  lived  so  long  in  this 
condition  that  they  know  nothing  better ; — 

Where  pauperism  is  hereditary  and  paupers  are  born  into  a  condi- 
tion not  unlike  the  castes  of  India,  whence  there  is  no  hope;  and 
they  are  content  with  their  lot,  which  varies  with  the  seasons, 
tramping  on  lovely  country  roads  in  summer,  robbing  hen-roosts  or 
houses,  perhaps  from  hunger  or  partly  from  delight  in  pleasurable 
excitement,  increased  by  the  risk  of  an  encounter,  or  of  a  month  or 
two  in  a  spacious  building  with  all  reasonable  comfort,  so  much 
better  than  they  get  outside  ; — 

Where  out-relief,  or  private  charity,  or  loose  alms  guarantee 
against  serious  suffering ; — 

And  where,  as  in  London  and  New  York,  their  numbers  are  so 
large  that,  first,  the  evil  influences  they  receive  from  each  other  far 
exceed  any  good  influences  which  Christian  society  has  yet  learned 
to  apply  ;  second,  their  treatment  in  casual  wards,  almshouses,  jails, 
reformatories  or  prisons,  by  police  or  officials,  is — I  had  almost  said 
of  necessity — almost  always  mechanical,  and  too  often  hard  and 
brutalizing,  as  for  instance  in  the  casual  wards*  of  London  with  cold 

*The  Wayfarers'  Lodge  in  Boston  seems  to  unite  such  decent  treatment  of 
inmates  with  clean  bed  in  ample  rooms,  fairly  good  food,  with  enforced  bath 
and  a  stent  of  about  three  hours'  labor  in  sawing  wood  in  the  morning,  as  to 
meet  the  present  conditions  of  pauperism  in  a  city  like  Boston,  The  system 
is  not  so  harsh  that  humane  citizens  refuse  to  send  casuals  to  the  Lodge,  nor 
so  attractive  as  to  promote  vagrancy. 

Wayfarers'  Lodges  have  been  established  in  Philadelphia  and  are  proposed 
in  New  York,  similar  to  that  in  Boston. 


PAINE.  27 

Stone  walls,  in  prison-like  cells — a  stent  of  stone  to  be  broken  and 
thrown  out  through  the  meshes  of  the  net,  before  they  are  free,  after 
a  confinement  of  a  day  and  a  half  at  the  least,  so  that  the  great  facts 
stand  out  for  all  students  of  city  life  to  see. 

BrtUality  and  Stdlen  Defiance. 

Brutality  and  sullen  defiance  are  added  to  and  engrafted  on  the 
pauper  character.  With  the  sullen  endurance  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indian  they  meet  their  fate  ;  gentler  treatment  not  repelling,  and 
harsh  treatment  only  embittering  and  degrading. 

When  the  pauperism  of  a  vast  city  is  sunk  in  sullen  despair  and 
degraded  life  is  no  longer  abhorrent  to  its  victims,  and  brutality 
sinks  men  into  savages,  so  that  despair,  degradation  and  brutality 
become  the  dominant  traits  of  character  of  a  great  pauper  mass, 
then,  in  the  name  of  God,  society  has  got  to  put  forth  mightier 
energies  in  more  judicious  array  than  heretofore,  or  fail  in  its 
attempt. 

I  declare  before  this  great  audience  representing  the  best  civiliza- 
tion of  many  countries,  that  the  methods  of  dealing  with  pauperism 
hitherto  applied  are  impotent  against  this  swelling  tide  of  brutal, 
degraded  pauperism. 

England's  great  poor  law  reform  of  1834  is  always  cited  first. 
The  fundamental  principle  of  this  reform  was  "  That  the  situa- 
tion OF  THE  PERSON  RECEIVING  RELIEF  SHOULD  NOT  ON  THE 
WHOLE  BE  MADE  REALLY  OR  APPARENTLY  SO  ELIGIBLE  AS  THE 
SITUATION    OF     THE     INDEPENDENT     LABORER    OF    THE     LOWEST 

CLASS."     (NichoU's  History  of  English  Poor  Law,  Vol.  2,  p.  257.) 

This  principle  has  been  everywhere  accepted. 

Seth  Low  cites  it  in  his  famous  attack  on  the  evils  of  "  outdoor 
relief"  (1879,  p.  3)  as  an  accepted  principle. 

The  charity  organization  societies  of  London  and  of  all  other 
cities  concur. 

The  earlier  system  which  prevailed,  of  sending  to  police  stations  casuals 
who  asked  bed  or  food,  has  been  generally  condemned. 

Shall  we  not  agree  that  every  city  should  have  a  lodge  for  wayfarers,  com- 
bining humane  treatment,  enough  though  very  simple  food,  clean  bed,  with 
insistence  on  a  just  return  in  labor  from  every  able-bodied  man,  and  a  full 
measure  of  genuine  sympathy  for  those  seeking  work,  nay  for  all,  and 
especially  with  best  possible  counsel  where  to  seek  employment  ?  Boston  has 
its  great  Labor  Bureau  in  an  adjoining  building. 


\ 


28  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

In  fact,  the  soundness  of  this  principle  is  unquestioned.  The  lot 
of  the  pauper  must  not  be  made  too  attractive.  Yet  I  am  led  to  ask 
whether  Repression  has  not  been  guilty  of  a  fatal  error.  Has  not 
the  system  been  leit  to  such  mere  officialism  as  to  be  hard  and 
depressing  and  at  last  brutalizing? 

And  this  in  two  directions.  First,  to  the  worthy  poor,  so  that  all 
England  is  now  vibrating  in  recoil  from  the  sad  lot  of  the  old  and 
worthy  and  suffering  poor.  Second,  to  the  idle,  the  dissolute,  the 
loafer  and  the  tramp — th.e  unworthy  poor. 

Do  not  present  conditions  in  London  and  New  York  force  us  to 
face  a  new  and  graver  problem  ?  Yes,  and  the  conditions  in  cities 
of  the  second  rank  also. 

They  will  not  live  by  Labor. 

Do  not  the  new  race  of  brutally  degraded  paupers  laugh  to  scorn 
the  principle  of  the  English  Reform  of  1834,  that  their  lot  shall  not 
be  made  too  attractive  ?  Do  they  not  defy  differences  of  detail  of 
poor  law  administration?  Must  we  not  reckon  with  the  fact  that 
they  have  resolved  only  upon  one  sure  and  certain  thing,  that  they 
will  not  live  by  labor  ? 

For  proof  I  cite  that  malignant  talisman,  the  story  of  the  Jukes. 
If  any  have  not  read  Dugdale's  story,  let  them  straightway  do  so, 
and  see  how  the  mere  principle  of  repression,  as  society  has  applied 
it,  in  almshouse  or  jail  or  by  denial  of  out-relief,  failed  to  prevent  a 
numerous  and  degraded  offspring  through  many  generations  enjoy- 
ing life  in  every  imaginable  form  of  degradation. 

Or  who  can  forget  that  similar  story  of  horrors,  "  The  Social 
Degradation  of  the  Tribe  of  Ishmael  "  by  Oscar  C.  McCulloch, 
five  years  ago,  which  will  long  endure  as  a  powerful  argument  for 
speedy  and  radical  reform,  to  which  he  gave  the  wisdom  and 
enthusiasm  and  organizing  energy  of  his  noble  life? 

If  you  love  statistics,  count  the  number  of  applicants  for  relief  in 
the  great  cities  of  this  land  or  of  England  or  Germany.  Count  the 
convicts  annually  sent  to  jail.  How  many  are  old  repeaters  ?  Can 
many  cities  surpass  Boston  in  its  list  of  offenders  sent  down  to  the 
House  of  Industry  two  or  three  or  four  or  five  score  of  times,  till  the 
leader  of  the  throng  is  found  perhaps  boasting  of  his  one  hundred 
and  forty  sentences  ? 

What  a  parody  on  punishment  when  the  drunken  ruffian  whom  I 
knew  in  the  South  Cove  comes  home  from  jail  so  reckless  that  he 


PAINE.  29 

takes  from  Johnnie's  feet  the  new  boots  his  wife  has  bought,  and  the 
caHco  gown  off  his  little  daughter,  to  sell  for  rum,  and  so  degraded 
that  he  likes  the  "  Island  "  as  well  as  his  home.* 

No  wonder  Governor  Altgeld  of  Illinois,  in  his  welcome  through  a 
friend  to  the  Prison  Commission  last  week,  said  arrests  were  too 
many,  70,000  a  year  in  Chicago.  Expand  this  mere  statistic  to  its 
full  meaning.  The  length  and  breadth  of  its  lessons  are  too 
tremendous. 

Has  not  the  principle  of  repression  miserably  failed,  when  its 
effort  to  make  the  lot  of  the  pauper  not  over  eligible  hardens  tramps 
into  such  brutal  degradation  that  in  their  game  with  society  they 
seem  just  now  to  hold  in  their  hands  the  winning  cards,  and  yet  on 
the  other  hand  the  worthy  poor  of  England  are  in  such  straits  that 
a  great  pension  scheme  throws  its  baleful  shadow  across  the  land? 
No  doubt  the  conditions  of  labor  there  are  less  favorable  than  in  the 
United  States,  wages  lower  and  demand  for  labor  slack,  the  army  of 
Londoners  unemployed  increasing,  and  the  lot  of  worthy  poor  in 
their  old  age  appealing  to  every  sympathy. 

Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I  do  not  object  to  repression,  but  to 
its  failure.  Why  has  it  failed  ?  Partly  no  doubt  because  the  whole 
system  of  punishment  by  fine  and  by  brief  terms  of  confinement  has 
failed  to  be  deterrent.  Sentimentality  has  also  refused  to  permit 
punishment  to  be  reasonably  severe. 

But  the  chief  reason  is  that  officialism  has  lacked  the  humane 
element  absolutely  necessary  to  save  its  influence  from  being 
mechanical  and  degrading. 

Officialism  without  humanity  can  punish,  but  it  only  sinks  the 
sufferer  into  worse  debasement. 

*" There  are  soft-hearted  persons  who  would  cry  out  in  the  name  of  philan- 
thropy against  indeterminate  and  cumulative  sentences,  and  still  more  against 
the  incarceration  for  life  of  vagabonds  who  have  never  done  anything  worse 
than  go  on  in  beggary,  dirt,  and  drunkenness,  and  beget  children  doomed  by 
their  birth  to  idiocy,  profligacy,  or  crime.  Yet  the  sterilization  of  the  unfit  by 
life-long  segregation  is  demanded  in  the  interests  of  every  hope  of  social 
morality,  and  it  is  a  blot  upon  our  civilization  that  men  and  women  should  be 
sent  to  the  Island  or  the  Bridewell,  a  dozen  times  a  year  for  ten  days  or  two 
weeks  at  a  time,  year  in,  year  out,  from  their  first  commitment  for  drunkenness 
at  eighteen  or  nineteen  years  of  age,  till  they  stumble  at  last  into  a  pauper's 
grave.  What  a  senseless  mockery  of  corrective  discipline  to  suppose  that  a 
drunkard  of  forty  years'  standing  is  going  to  be  reformed  by  giving  him  ten 
days  at  the  Island  for  the  hundredth  time  !" — Father  J.  O.  S.  Huntington,  in 
Social  Progress,  p.  186. 


30  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

When  also  punishment  ceases  to  prevent  crimes,  the  problem 
assumes  the  most  terrible  aspect. 

How  such  pauper  criminals  and  criminal  paupers  can  be  restored 
to  manhood,  is  so  hard  a  question  that  theology  sometimes  fears  it 
may  be  beyond  the  power  of  God. 

No  wonder  that  it  is  a  supreme  task  for  man.  Yet  this  is  the 
exact  task  which  scientific  charity  now  has  got  to  accept — to  deal 
fittingly  with  degraded  need.  Sympathy  loves  to  aid  the  tender  and 
attractive  child.  It  hastens  to  the  side  of  a  widow  in  her  woe.  It 
cares  for  the  sick  or  the  suffering,  for  victims  of  fire,  flood  or  other 
casualty,  but  it  has  not  yet  begun  to  do  its  duty  to  the  pauper,  and 
too  often  recoils  with  horror  from  that  compound  of  pauperism  and 
vice  which  is  the  worst  phase  of  great  city  life. 

Repression  alone  is  a  Failure. 

Charitable  work  has  two  sides,  the  positive  and  constructive,  and 
the  negative  or  repressive. 

The  last  is  content  to  prevent  overlapping,  stop  begging,  discover 
imposture,  cut  off  needless  alms  and  reduce  excessive  outdoor  relief. 

The  first  aims  at  improving  the  condition  of  a  family  in  any  pos- 
sible wise  way,  health,  home,  skill,  work,  trade,  temperance,  thrift, 
cheer,  by  personal  influence,  by  organizations  like  stamp  savings, 
or  the  Bedford  Industrial  Building,  or  by  whatever  other  wise  ways 
ingenuity  can  discover.  This  charity  I  will  call  constructive,  and 
the  other  repressive.  Who  will  not  agree  with  me  that  repressive 
charity  alone  is  hard,  and  that  negative  measures  alone  will  fail? 
Only  as  charity  learns  to  diagnose  and  discriminate,  and  then  brings 
ingenuity  to  the  various  problems,  with  deep  and  genuine  sympathy, 
boldly  summoning  to  this  imperative  duty  the  social  and  christian 
powers  of  all  good  men  and  women  in  personal  service,  only  so  can 
charity  succeed. 

The  height  of  this  ideal  for  great  cities,  I  know  too  well  to  seek 
to  belittle.  Only  by  stating  it  in  its  utmost  demands  can  the  mighty 
powers,  as  yet  dormant  or  little  aroused,  of  great  cities  be  stirred  to 
their  tremendous  task.  Little  cities  delight  in  this  duty,  and  can  do 
it  with  a  measure  of  success  full  of  inspiration  for  us  all. 

Newport  offers  a  picture  of  beautiful  and  devoted  work,  which  I 
have  always  delighted  to  honor  and  to  cite  as  encouraging  proof  of 
what  will  follow  from  thorough,  patient,  persistent,  personal  work, 
wisely  guided  and  well  done,  in  a  small  community,  where  the  right 
influences  may  be  applied  in  each  different  case. 


PAINE. 


31 


Their  C.  O.  S.  report  in  1880  shows  the  exact  change  and  improve- 
ment in  the  condition  of  220  families  classified  at  the  beginning  and 
at  the  end  of  their  first  year's  work.* 

Success  in  Newport  has  continued.  It  is  largely  due  to  the  devo- 
tion and  wisdom  of  a  few  leaders  who  threw  themselves  into  the  new 
work,  and  to  faithful  friendly  visiting. 

Cities  of  the  first  size,  like  London,  New  York,  Chicago  and  Phila- 
delphia, differ  in  no  more  important  respect  from  smaller  cities  than 
in  their  apparent  inability  to  create  and  maintain  "friendly  visiting," 
on  any  large  scale.t 

This  great  topic  will  be  worthily  treated  to-morrow.  Enough  here 
to  say  that  this  spirit  underlies  the  best  efforts  to  improve  the  condi- 
tions of  the  poor,  whether  e7i  viasse,  or  more  especially  in  their  indi- 
vidual needs,  in  many  other  cities  from  Brooklyn  and  Boston,  down. 

With  absolute  candor  I  must  say,  that  in  my  judgment  where 
cities  are  too  large  for  personal  relations  of  friendly  sympathy  and 
help — where  distances  are  too  great  or  absorption  in  the  whirl  of 
other  cares  is  too  intense,  the  chasm  between  the  happy  and  the 

*  "The  amount  of  outdoor  relief  given  by  tlie  city  for  the  year  1879-80  was 
about  $2500  less  than  the  previous  year.  This  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  winter  was  an  open  one,  and  outdoor  work  was  carried  on  to  an  unusual 
extent.  For  the  current  year,  1880-81,  the  appropriation  for  the  Poor 
Department  has  been  reduced  by  $2000.  Up  to  December  first  there  have 
been  less  than  one-third  as  many  applicants  for  relief  as  there  were  up  to  the 
same  date  in  1879. 

"Last  year  we  dealt  chiefly  on  the  necessity  for  the  work,  the  need  of  inves- 
tigation, the  duty  of  withholding  indiscriminate  alms;  this  year  we  show  you 
as  the  result  of  those  principles,  put  in  practice  through  some  difficulties,  that 
the  worthy  poor  are  well  cared  for,  that  homes  have  been  bettered,  characters 
improved,  the  unworthy  and  disabling  spirit  of  pauperism  checked,  and  above 
all,  that  thrift,  one  of  the  first  duties  of  a  citizen,  is  being  taught,  if  slowly, 
yet  surely." 

t"What,"  says  Miss  Hill,  speaking  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society, 
"  is  its  living  call  to  us  all  ?  To  come  ourselves  and  help.  In  every  Metropolitan 
district  is  its  group  of  workers,  men  and  women  of  every  kind  united  in  but 
one  thought — how  to  help  in  wisest  and  most  patient  ways  every  case  of  want 
and  suffering.  Its  remedy  is  the  eternal  remedy  of  patient  care  and  thought 
and  wisdom,  brought  to  bear  on  men  and  women  and  children  in  their  own 
homes  by  their  neighbors.  Money,  yes,  certainly,  and  plenty  of  it;  but  abid- 
ing and  large  gifts  as  citizens  for  fellow-citizens,  sown  like  separate  seeds 
with  care,  watched  and  watched  over  and  given  with  ourselves  to  the  real  service 
of  those  we  know  and  love." 


32  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

wretched  must  go  on  growing  more  deep  and  terrible,  till  the  condi- 
tion of  the  pauper  criminal  mass  becomes  intolerable. 

Chicago  in  this  season  of  her  glory,  can  she  pardon  critics  who 
suggest  that  the  star  of  friendly  visiting  is  needed  to  make  her 
diadem  complete  ? 

Philadelphia  began  with  a  goodly  corps  of  friendly  visitors,  but 
has  failed  to  maintain  their  efficiency  or  numbers. 

New  York  has  not  yet  conceived  it  possible  to  obtain,  friendly 
visitors  in  large  numbers. 

Read  in  Hon.  A.  S.  Hewitt's  admirable  address  at  the  opening  of 
the  United  Charities  Building  in  New  York  these  words  of  the  Charity 
Organization  Society:  "Its  mission  is  by  investigation  and  registra- 
tion to  guard  the  public  against  the  abuse  of  benevolence  and  to 
devise  and  institute  measures  of  prevention,  in  which  reside  the  only 
solid  hope  of  a  permanent  moral  improvement." 

Whereby  it  appears  that  gathering  and  using  a  large  number  of 
friendly  visitors  is  not  alluded  to  as  any  part  of  the  New  York  con- 
ception of  organized  charity. 

From  London  we  read  in  the  Charity  Organization  Review  (July, 
1893,  p.  46),  in  an  article  perhaps  written  by  Mr.  Loch,  entitled 
"American  View  of  Charity  Organization  Society  work  "  : 

"The  second  institution  to  which  we  should  like  to  refer,  as  evidently  held 
in  high  estimation  by  many  leading  Charity  Organization  Society  thinkers,  is 
that  of  friendly  visitors. 

"  How,  in  America,  they  manage  to  obtain  qualified  friendly  visitors  on  a 
large  scale,  we  do  not  know. 

"The  World's  Fair  at  Chicago  will  give  any  who  wish  the  opportunity  of 
noting  the  enthusiasm  and  hopefulness  of  the  American  societies  at  first 
hand." 

Boston  is  perhaps  the  city  where  friendly  visiting  first  became  an 
essential  part  of  the  new  charity.  It  formed  no  part  of  the  original 
movement  in  London  in  1869.  It  had  been  done  in  Boston  on  a 
small  scale  in  ward  seven,  by  the  co-operative  society  of  visitors  before 
the  organization  of  the  Associated  Charities;  but  that  body  first  made 
formal  and  definite  announcement  that  friendly  visiting  would  be 
seriously  undertaken  in  a  large  way.* 

"The  great  work  for  friendly  visitors  "  was  here  explained  and 

*  See  inaugural  address  of  Robert  Treat  Paine,  March  12,  1879,  when  chosen 
president  of  the  Associated  Charities  of  Boston,  "Charity  Organization,"  No. 
6,  Publications  of  Boston  Associated  Charities. 


PAINE.  33 

■developed  substantially  upon  the  same  lines  that  it  has  followed  to 
the  present  time. 

The  principle  was  thus  stated  in  my  address  at  the  Social  Science 
Conference,  at  Saratoga,  in  September,  1880  ("Not  Alms,  but  a 
Friend."     No.  17): 

"  Whenever  any  family  has  fallen  so  low  as  to  need  relief,  send  to 
them  at  least  one  friend — a  patient,  true,  sympathizing,  firm  friend — . 
to  do  for  them  all  that  a  friend  can  do  to  discover  and  remove  the 
causes  of  their  dependence,  and  to  help  them  up  into  independent 
self-support  and  self-respect." 

Let  me  call  attention  to  one  fact.  The  original  draft  of  the  Boston 
society  authorized  giving  relief,  if  it  could  be  procured  from  no  other 
source.  But  this  clause  was  stricken  out,  owing  to  the  opposition  of 
relief  societies,  and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  by  the  finger  of  God.  Visitors 
were  compelled  to  devote  their  thought  and  sympathy  in  other 
directions,  so  admirably  described  by  Miss  Octavia  Hill,  with  what- 
ever measure  of  success  has  been  attained. 

Fourteen  years'  experience  justifies  more  strongly  with  each  new 
year's  results  the  encouraging  claim  that,  in  almost  every  case,  a 
friendly  visitor  can  learn  how  to  help,  and  can  often  succeed  in  help- 
ing into  independence,  a  family  in  distress,  if  he  (or  usually  she)  goes 
into  their  home  and  learns  the  truth,  going  there  not  to  give  alms, 
but  prohibited  usually  from  giving  alms,  and  therefore  forced  to 
study  how  to  aid  the  family  in  permanent  ways. 

Statistics  year  after  year  show  in  how  many  varied  ways  real  help 
has  been  given. 

Brooklyn  is  the  largest  city  which  has  successfully  developed  and 
maintained  efficiently  the  work  of  friendly  visiting.  See  report  of 
Brooklyn  Bureau  of  Charities  for  1892,  p.  16,  for  an  interesting 
organization  of  their  visitors  for  study  as  a  class,  and  an  admirable 
statement  of  the 

Duties  of  Friendly  Visitors.^ 

"  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  a  friendly  visitor  to  visit  the  poor  and  distressed  as 
a  friend  ;  to  examine,  in  the  spirit  of  kindness,  the  causes  of  their  trouble  ;  to 
do  what  can  be  done  to  remove  those  causes  ;  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
ability  which  each  may  have,  and  to  aid  in  developing  it  and  in  finding  ways  in 
which  it  maybe  employed  in  self-help;  through  friendly  intercourse,  sympathy 
and  direction,  to  encourage  self-dependence,  industry  and  thrift;  to  recom- 
mend whatever  may  be  possible  and  wise  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  those 

*Art,  9,  Sec.  2  of  By-laws. 


34  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

whose  infirmities  cannot  be  cured  or  removed  ;  if  material  aid  be  necessary,  to 
obtain  it  from  existing  organizations  as  far  as  possible  ;  and  in  every  case  to 
promote  in  all  practical  ways  the  physical  and  moral  improvement  of  the 
families  in  the  visitor's  charge." 

Mr.  Alfred  T.  White,  president  of  the  Brooklyn  Bureau  of  Char- 
ities, has  recently  described  the  excellent  work  done  in  that  great 
city.  ("The  Friendly  Visitor's  Opportunity,"  Charities  Review, 
April,  1893,  p.  329.) 

"It  may  appear,"  he  says,  <' a  slow  process  to  eliminate  poverty  piece  by 
piece  from  our  great  cities,  and  it  is  natural  to  long  for  some  quicker  way,  but 
thc7-e  is  710  way  which  does  not  reach  to  and  touch  the  character  of  the  ittdividual 
poor.  .  .  .  Surely  there  never  was  a  time  when  so  many  were  interested 
in  the  elevation  of  those  less  favored  than  themselves." 

"  Where  is  the  call  so  clear  to  us  in  city  life  as  this  need  of  our  neighbors 
for  our  personal  consideration  and  service  ? — a  need  doubly  commanding  since 
the  organization  of  charity  has  so  greatly  increased  the  possibilities  of  success- 
ful interest  and  effort"  (p.  331). 

Here  in  Mr.  White's  words  is  the  supreme  aim  and  need  of  friendly 
visiting:  to  "  touch  the  character  of  the  individual  poor." 

Radical  Remedies. 

What  reply  has  scientific  charity  to  the  question  whether  the 
grand  aggregate  of  degraded  pauperism  in  great  cities  is  to  increase 
or  decrease,  when  the  forces  that  work  for  evil  are  all  weighed  : — 

The  unemployed,  an  army  in  London,  numerous  in  New  York, 
not  many  usually  in  smaller  cities  ; 

The  inefficient,  always  in  all  cities  a  great  number  vibrating 
between  work  and  idleness ; 

Paupers  resolved. only  on  one  thing,  that  they  hate  work; 

The  terrible  element  of  vice,  and  the  great  army  of  criminals,  who 
war  upon  society,  not  deterred  by  present  penalties ; 

Then  add  the  causes  of  sickness  and  low  vitality  ; 

In  some  cities  all  these  evils  aggregated  into  great  masses. 

Simply  and  surely  this  first,  that  merely  to  deal,  no  matter  how 
wisely,  with  single  cases  of  distress  or  crime  as  they  arise,  is 
infinitely  insufficient. 

Nay,  worse,  Prof.  W.  G.  Tucker  in  his  Phi  Beta  Oration  at 
Harvard,  last  June,  compels  us  to  seek  more  radical  cure,  by  more 
radical  measures,  when  he  says:  "The  philanthropy  which  is 


PAINE. 


35 


CONTENT  TO  RELIEVE  THE  SUFFERER  FROM  WRONG  SOCIAL  CON- 
DITIONS, POSTPONES  THE  PHILANTHROPY  WHICH  IS  DETERMINED, 
AT  ANY  COST,  TO  RIGHT  THOSE  CONDITIONS." 

"Who  does  not  know,"  says  Professor  H.  C.  Adams,  "that  much  of  our 
so-called  philanthropy  tends  to  perpetuate  those  conditions  which  seem  to  make 
philanthropy  necessary  ?  Father  Huntington  has  rendered  a  marked  service 
in  the  strong  protest  which  he  urges  against  the  charities  of  our  day.  He 
shows  to  the  discerning  mind  that  a  philanthropy  which  is  satisfied  when  the 
cry  of  the  sufferer  is  hushed  has  no  place  among  the  permanent  forces  of 
social  progress."     (Social  Progress,  p.  x.) 

This  brings  me  to  the  main  purpose  of  my  paper.  Has  not  the 
new  charity  organization  movement  too  long  been  content  to  aim  at 
a  system  to  reheve  or  even  uplift  judiciously  single  cases  without 
asking  if  there  are  not  prolific  causes  permanently  at  work  to  create 
want,  vice,  crime,  disease  and  death  ;  and  whether  these  causes  may 
not  be  wholly  or  in  large  degree  eradicated  ? 

If  such  causes  of  pauperism  exist,  how  vain  to  waste  our  energies 
on  single  cases  of  relief,  when  society  should  rather  aim  at  removing 
the  prolific  sources  of  all  the  woe. 

The  four  great  causes  of  pauperism  and  of  degraded 

CITY  life  have  LONG  SEEMED  TO  ME  TO  BE  THESE  : 

1.  Foul  homes. 

2.  Intoxicating  drink. 

3.  Neglect  of  child  life. 

4.  Indiscriminate  almsgiving. 

Who  can  closely  study  the  conditions  of  life  among  the  poor  of 
cities  without  seeing  these  malignant  forces  working  day  and  night 
to  create  all  forms  of  degraded  life? 

Who  then  will  not  agree  with  me  that  resolute  and  heroic  meas- 
ures must  be  taken  in  all  large  cities,  before  conditions  become 
hopeless  ? 

What  happier  augury  can  come  from  this  conference  than  the  con- 
viction that  all  the  forces  of  scientific  and  christian  charity  must 
combine  to  extirpate  these  outrages  upon  the  virtue,  health  and 
happiness  of  the  masses  of  the  people? 

Charles  Booth*  counts  up  twenty-three  principal  causes  of  pau- 
perism : 

*  '•  Pauperism  and  the  Endowment  of  Old  Age,"  p.  9. 


36  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

Crime,  vice,  drink,  laziness,  pauper  association,  heredity,  mental 
disease,  temper,  incapacity,  early  marriage,  large  family,  extrava- 
gance, lack  of  work,  trade  misfortune,  restlessness,  no  relations,  death 
of  husband,  desertion,  death  of  father  or  mother,  sickness,  accident, 
ill  luck,  old  age. 

But  may  not  all  these  twenty-three  causes,  except  old  age,  acci- 
dent and  death,  come  from  wretched  life  in  a  foul  home,  or  drunken- 
ness, or  neglect  when  the  victim  was  a  child,  or  indiscriminate 
giving  of  alms? 

Yes,  these  four  causes  are  the  primary,  potent  and  prolific  sources 
of  the  degraded  life  in  cities.  All  of  them  are  remediable  in  different 
ways  and  to  different  degrees. 

How  long  will  it  be  possible  for  the  public  to  witness  these  out- 
rages against  itself  and  against  the  welfare  and  the  rights  of  our 
poorer  citizens,  without  such  indignant  wrath  as  to  cleanse  them 
away  from  city  lite  ? 

Foul  Homes. 

Which  of  the  two  causes  dragging  down  the  conditions  of  life 
among  the. masses,  foul  homes  or  intoxicating  drink,  is  more  potent, 
I  do  not  know.     Each  leads  surely  to  the  other. 

Everywhere  the  conviction  gains  ground  that  it  is  impossible  to 
elevate  the  conditions  of  the  lower  class  of  working  people  above 
the  condition  of  their  homes.  If  they  are  left  in  foul  and  over- 
crowded slums  or  damp  basements  or  dilapidated  barracks,  it  is  too 
much  to  expect  them  to  be  virtuous  or  self-respecting  or  inde- 
pendent. These  rotten  slums  are  hotbeds  which  propagate  low 
life,  shattering  the  health  of  occupants  and  so  promoting  pauperism, 
loosening  the  morals  and  so  promoting  vice  and  crime  ;  and  perhaps 
worst  of  all  in  their  poisonous  influence  on  the  children  who  grow 
up  in  them  too  often  without  virtue,  self-respect,  health  or  hope. 

We  all  rejoice  to  see  that  the  increasing  interest  of  society  in  the 
homes  of  the  people  is  taking  shape  in  many  efficient  ways. 

What  I  believe  to  be  of  great  importance  to  this  cause,  is  that  its 
close  relations  to  the  whole  pauper  problem  of  great  cities  should  be 
recognized ;  so  that  all  observers  may  see  and  know  that  the  two 
causes  are  only  one  cause  ;  and  the  friends  of  each  may  see  the 
larger  relations  of  their  work  and  gain  power  and  motive  from  this 
consciousness  that  they  are  not  merely  dealing  with  details,  but  rather 
are  shaping  the  conditions  of  the  present  and  future  welfare  of  the 
people. 


PAINE.  37 

A  Higher  Standard  of  Habitability. 

If  the  aim  of  all  charitable  work  arriong  the  poor  is  a  general 
improvement  of  their  condition,  so  the  aim  of  all  who  are  interested 
in  their  homes  must  be  to  establish  a  higher  standard  of  habitability. 

Grand  impulse  has  been  given  to  this  movement  in  England  by 
four  persons,  Lord  Shaftesbury,  Octavia  Hill,  Sir  Sydney  Waterlow 
and  George  Peabody. 

Lord  Shaftesbury  began  the  movement  to  improve  the  homes  of 
working  people  in  1842,  of  which  time  he  says:  "So  little  were 
people  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the  houses  in  which  laboring 
people  dwelt,  that  we  treated  the  question  as  an  entirely  new  one. 
Many  persons  then  thought  that  we  were  undertaking  a  quixotic 
work,  and  that  there  was  really  very  little  that  required  amendment. 
But  I  am  happy  to  say  that  the  improvement  of  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes  in  a  domiciliary  aspect  is  now  almost  a  trite  subject." 

He  was  the  first  witness  before  the  Royal  Commission  of  1884, 
and  his  words  describing  the  horrors  of  the  abodes  of  the  poor 
shocked  all  England.  When  he  died  in  1886,  full  of  honors  and 
beloved  of  all,  he  had  no  juster  claim  to  honor  and  love  than  his 
life-long  services  for  the  homes  of  plain  people. 

Octavia  Hill  came  next  in  order  of  time,  but  she  stands  supreme 
thus  far  in  the  world's  history  among  and  above  all  others  who  have 
thought,  labored  and  lived  for  and  among  the  poor,  to  improve  their 
homes. 

Octavia  Hill  and  Sir  Sydney  Waterlow  are  entitled  to  rank 
among  the  great  discoverers  of  this  world,  now  that  sociology  takes 
its  due  rank,  above  all  natural  sciences,  next  only  to  the  knowledge 
of  God.  ^  J^. 

Miss  Hill  discovered  and  has  taught  the  world  the  true  relations  jVj'i 
of  landlord  and  tenant.  She  has  created  a  normal  school  in  this  art.  \ 
Men  and  women  from  this  country  as  well  as  England  try  to  learn 
the  sweet  and  beautiful  and  wonderfully  potent,  uplifting  influence 
which  she  and  her  band  of  rent  collectors  have  been  exerting  for 
years  among  the  very  humblest  classes  of  tenants  in  some  of  the 
gloomiest  courts  of  London.  Let  sociologists  watch  the  spread  of 
this  new  power  through  the  world,  and  teach  it  to  every  school. 

Sir  Sydney  Waterlow's  discovery  ranks  next  in  value  to  working- 
men.  Risking  first  his  own  means  alone,  he  learned  and  proved 
that  even  in  a  great  city  like  London,  where  land  values  are  high, 


420358 


38  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

model  tenement -houses,  built  with  all  reasonable  conveniences  and 
comforts,  can  be  made  a  commercial  success.  This  discovery 
introduces  into  modern  civilization  a  potent  force  to  improve  the 
homes  of  the  people.  Its  effect  has  been  so  powerful  as  to  have 
changed  the  face  of  London.  Capital  has  been  attracted  by  the 
millions  of  pounds  sterling ;  one  company  alone  of  which  Sir  Sydney 
is  president,  "  The  Improved  Industrial  Dwellings  Company,"  has 
built  thirty  blocks  in  different  parts  of  London  at  a  cost  of  $5,000,000, 
and  offers  to  some  30,000  souls  homes  not  devoid  of  aesthetic  charm, 
at  moderate  rents,  which  yield  five  per  cent,  on  the  capital. 

Alfred  T.  White  has  achieved  a  like  success  with  model  blocks  in 
Brooklyn,  on  a  large  scale.* 

The  Boston  Cooperative  Building  Company  has  in  22  years  pro- 
vided 76  houses,  with  962  rooms,  for  325  families,  at  a  cost  of 
$400,000  in  Boston.  These  tenements  are  eagerly  sought  by  intelli- 
gent tenants,  and  the  investment  has  been  most  successful  in  all 
respects. 

Three  Agencies. 

Three  agencies  directly  deal  with  the  task  of  fitly  housing  the 
people: 

1.  Philanthropic  agencies,  which  aim  to  improve  the  condition 
both  of  tenants  and  of  the  tenements  they  occupy. 

2.  Economic  agencies  providing  decent  homes,  often  in  model 
buildings. 

3.  Municipal  agencies  aiming  to  abolish  the  worst  evils  and  to 
destroy  foul  homes. 

High  above  each  and  all  of  these  three  agencies  in  its  influence 
and  promise  of  grand  results,  I  place  the  rising  ambition  of  working- 
men  themselves  to  own  their  own  homes.t 

If  this  laudable  ambition  is  lacking  among  the  lowest  class,  so  also 
do  both  of  the  powerful  agencies  at  work  to  provide  model  homes, 
whether  by  philanthropic  or  invested  capital  of  which  1  have  just 
spoken,  shoot  over  their  heads. 

*  Described  in  his  "  Improved  Dwellings  for  the  Laboring  Classes,"  1879, 
and  "Better  Homes  for  Workingmen,"  18S5,  Conference  of  Charities. 

tH.  M.  Hyndman,  of  the  Social  Democratic  Federation,  addressing  the 
Labor  Commission  in  England,  objects  to  thrift  in  workingmen,  because  it 
only  makes  them  small  capitalists,  buttressing  the  class  they  should  supplant 
and  intensifying  the  competition  from  which  they  suffer! — [Econ.  Journal, 
March,  1893,  p.  169.] 


PAINE.  39 

The  agency  which  must  be  invoked  to  rescue  the  very  poor, 
whether  virtuous  and  struggh'ng,  or  degraded  and  indifferent,  is  ihe 
municipal p07ver  to  destroy  utterly  unfit  abodes  of  habitations. 

Sad,  indeed,  is  the  fact  that  \vhen  charity  aids  some  wretched 
family  to  move  out  of  a  vile  basement  or  dark  and  nasty  slum,  pre- 
sently some  other  like  family  moves  in. 

The  growth  of  public  sentiment  towards  practical  unanimity  in  this 
decision  has  been  marked  by  important  measures  in  London,  Glas- 
gow and  other  cities  of  Great  Britain. 

The  London  Charity  Organization  Society  reports  on  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  poor  record  this  progress.     (1873  and  1881.) 

I  will  only  quote  here  the  judgment  of  one  man,  which  has  aided 
in  this  enlightened  movement. 

Dr.  Gairdner,  Medical  Officer  of  Health  for  Glasgow,  wrote: 

"  I  believe  that  nuisance  removal,  epidemic  inspection,  cleansing,  ventila- 
ting, and  suppression  of  overcrowding,  are  all  good  up  to  a  certain  point  .  .  . 
But  in  relation  to  the  persistent  and  slowly  accunutlating  evils  of  our  great  towns, 

■  the  social  rottenness,  so  to  speak,  that  is  in  thetn  all,  these  are  mere  surface- 
vieasjires.  .  .  .  I  am  putting  it  roundly, perhaps  you  will  even  say  paradoxically, 
but  r  am  stating  the  result  of  a  deep  conviction,  when  I  say  that  the  destructive 

part  pf  the  duty  of  the  authorities  is  of  more  importance,  if  possible,  than  the  con- 
structive ;  that  the  first  attd  more  essential  step  is  to  get  rid  of  the  existing  hajints 

•of  moral  and  physical  degradation.^''* 

This  movement  to  destroy  the  slums  is  under  powerful  headway. 

Rome,  Paris,  London,  Glasgow,  New  York  and  Boston,  and  so  on 
in  different  degree,  have  all  set  to  work  to  exterminate  those  rotten 
spots  or  foul  abodes  which  tainted  human  life. 

I  place  this  movement  at  the  head  as  the  most  powerful  force 
conducing  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  abject  poor. 

How  it  can  be  made  more  thoroughly  effective  is  the  most  import- 
ant question  I  may  send  home  with  each  of  my  hearers. 

Pass  in  review  our  co-workers,  and  then  let  us  see  how  they  can 
be  strengthened. 

The  medical  profession  to  a  man,  economists,  ministers  and 
churches,  philanthropists  and  workers  among  the  poor,  novelists  and 
the  press,  and  last  and  most  efficacious,  boards  of  health. 

New  York  gave  a  powerful  impulse  by  the  investigation  and  report 
of  the  board  of  health  in  1887. 

*  Report  of  the  Dwellings  Committee  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society, 
.1873,  p.  9. 


40  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

Boston  did  the  same  by  the  report  of  Professor  Dwight  Porter  in 
1889,  and  Gen.  F.  A,  Walker,  whose  judgment  carries  weight  not 
surpassed  in  the  United  States,  at  the  meeting  where  this  report  was 
presented,  stated : 

"  I  believe  that  a  true  view  of  the  economy  of  state  action  may  not  infrequently 
disclose  the  occasion  for  saving  a  great  deal  of  interference  and  a  great  deal  of 
state  action,  in  subsequent  stages,  by  putting  the  firm  hand  of  government 
upon  the  very  sources  of  evil,  and  applying  the  powers  of  the  state  to  crush 
out  social  mischief  in  its  inception.  I  confess  that  it  has  for  some  time  seemed 
to  me  increasingly  probable  that  the  social  philosophy  of  the  age  would  soon 
come  to  recognize  the  housing  of  the  very  poor  as  the  point  at  which  the 
remedial  action  of  the  government  may  be  applied,  not  only  with  the  highest 
effect  upon  the  happiness  and  health  of  the  community,  but  actually  with' 
large  resulting  reductions  from  the  sum  of  state  action  and  governmental' 
authority, 

"  It  would  be  an  act,  either  of  monstrous  ignorance  or  of  monstrous  impudence 
on  the  part  of  any  man,  contemplating  the  changes  of  public  sentiment  which 
have  taken  place  on  this  subject  within  the  last  fifteen,  ten,  and  five  years,  to- 
put  his  foot  down  and  say,  '  Thus  far  and  no  farther  will  I  go  towards  enlarging 
the  functions  of  the  state.'  In  view  of  the  great  developments  of  the  imme- 
diate past,  the  most  likely  thing  in  regard  to  each  one  of  us  by  turns,  is  that,  in 
five,  ten,  or  fifteen  years  from  now,  he  will  be  occupying  a  position  on  this 
subject  very  different  from  that  he  now  anticipates.  Yet  I  confess  I  have  of 
late  been  coming  rapidly  to  the  conviction  that  ere  long  there  will  be  a  general 
consent  of  conservative  citizens,  in  every  enlightened  state,  to  regard  as 
thoroughly  good  politics  all  interference  by  law  which  may  be  necessary  to 
prevent  any  portion  of  the  people  from  living  in  houses  which  are  unfit  for 
human  habitation,  residence  in  which  is  incompatible  with  health,  or  with 
social  or  personal  decency. 

"  I  expect  soon  to  see  the  time  come  when  the  commonwealth  of  Massachu- 
setts shall  declare  that  no  one  of  its  citizens,  under  whatever  plea  of  poverty, 
shall  have  his  home  where  he  has  not  a  sufficient  access  of  fresh  air  and  of 
God's  sunlight,  and  where  the  conditions  as  to  drainage  and  the  disposal  of 
refuse  are  not  such  as  to  afford  reasonable  security  for  the  health  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  to  protect  society  against  communicable  disease.  I  believe  that 
not  only  will  the  law  of  the  commonwealth  say  this,  which,  indeed,  is  little 
more  than  it  now  says,  but  that  the  public  sentiment  of  the  community  will 
have  been  so  educated  on  this  subject  as  to  support  the  officers  of  the  law  in 
whatever  rigorous  and  painful  measures  may  be  required  for  the  thorough, 
systematic  and  unrelenting  enforcement  of  the  most  advanced  sanitary 
requirements." 

Destroy  the  Slums. 

No  movement  can  be  inaugurated  in  any  city,  more  potent  to 
improve  the  conditions  of  the  most  wretched  poor  and  to  cut  off  the 


PAINE.  41 

supply  of  degraded  pauperism,  than  the  movement  to  destroy  the 
slums. 

Probably  no  city  has  been  wholly  inactive.  But  I  am  sure  no 
large  city  in  this  country  has  begun  to  act  up  to  the  standard  required 
for  the  health  or  morals  of  the  poor,  or  by  economy  to  the  public,  or 
by  principles  of  justice  and  right. 

Boards  of  health  have  power  probably  in  all  cities  to  vacate  dwell- 
ings unfit  for  human  habitation.  All  that  is  needed  is  aroused  public 
interest  to  learn  the  unspeakable  horrors  of  the  homes  of  the  wretched 
poor  to-day,  and  then  to  insist  on  a  higher  standard  of  habit  ability. 

Boards  of  health  will  follow  the  public  command  and  the  public 
conscience. 

Boston  is  taking  active  steps  in  this  direction.  A  number  of  public- 
spirited  men  and  women  have  organized  a  "  Better  Dwellings  Society," 
which  has  directed  attention  to  many  intolerable  rotten  spots.  The 
board  of  health  is  acting  with  judicious  firmness  in  vacating  unfit 
homes  below  an  accepted  standard,  which  has  been  steadily  rising  for 
a  score  of  years  in  compliance  with  enlightened  public  judgment. 

Yet  Boston  has  many  terrible  abodes  of  vice  and  wretchedness 
still  left  where  all  circumstances  concur  for  evil  life. 

It  is  a  cause  of  surprise  and  regret  to  find  in  the  reports  of  charity 
organization  or  relieving  societies  of  different  cities  so  little  attention 
paid  to  this  supreme  yet  eradicable  cause  of  pauperism  and  crime.* 

New  York  finds  this  problem  of  housing  the  poor  more  difficult 
than  any  other  city  of  the  world.  The  report  of  "The  Association 
for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor"  (1892,  p.  60),  describes 
their  action  as  to  homes  of  the  poor,  viz.: 

516  inspections, 

251  reports  to  the  board  of  health, 

760  causes  for  complaints,  and  of  these 

76  were  for  filthy  premises, 

54  were  for  dirty  yards, 

27  were  for  wet  cellars. 

Yet  the  surprising  thing  is  that  only  thirty  complaints  seem  to 
point  at  radical  evils,  "  Buildings  generally  dilapidated."  Even 
here  action  hardly  seems  to  be  aimed  at,  of  ivholly  vacating  the 
buildings  as  fatally  and  hopelessly  unfit. 

*  Nor  any  allusion  to  it  in  that  superb  history  by  Mr.  Kellogg  last  evening  of 
all  the  C.  O.  S.  work  for  these  twenty  years. 


42  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

The  Pittsburg  report  of  "  The  Association  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor  "  (1892,  p.  8)  states  that  visitors  made  20,915 
visits  to  the  poor,  visiting  "  homes  in  basements  that  are  zinhealthy 
through  dampness  and  no  sunshine,  and  to  people  who  live  in  old 
boats."  Yet  no  fierce  protests  of  righteous  indignation  are  made  to 
boards  of  health. 

Chicago  will,  I  hope,  permit  a  few  frank  words  about  this  terrible 
source  of  pauperism. 

The  report  for  1892  of  the  "  Chicago  Relief  Society  "  states  : 

"  The  general  circumstances  and  conditions  of  the  poor  in  Chicago  are  much 
more  favorable  than  in  most  large  cities  in  this  or  any  other  country.  The 
proportion  of  paupers  is  much  less.  Most  of  the  working  class  in  Chicago 
live  in  their  little  cottages,  in  many  cases  owned  by  their  occupants,  or  in 
comfortable  rooms  in  houses  usually  occupied  by  two  or  three  families  and 
seldom  by  more  than  four  or  five,  at  rents  from  five  dollars  to  seven  dollars 
monthly." 

Yet  on  the  other  hand,  the  last  report  I  have  seen  of  the  "  United 
Hebrew  Relief  Society"  of  Chicago  states,  (1885-86)  under  the 
heading  of  "  Tenement  Houses  for  the  Poor  "  : 

"Sickness  has  been  deplorably  prevalent.  The  evil  7nay  be  traced  to  the  unwhole- 
some habitations  in  which  the  poor  generally  reside.  These  dwellings  not  only 
destroy  physical  vigor,  but  they  stifle  the  mind  and  blunt  the  morals.  They 
are  inimical  to  the  cause  of  education  as  they  are  dangerous  to  bodily  health."* 

As  you  ride  out  to  the  World's  Fair  to  see  the  latest  triumph  of 
architecture  and  art  in  these  days,  look  down  from  the  South  Side 
Elevated  Railroad  (the  Alley  road,  so-called)  near  the  21st  street 
station  on  the  west,  or  again  at  26th  street,  at  the  wretched  slums 
below  you.  The  protracted  picture  of  conditions  of  intolerable  life 
points  my  argument  that  the  problem  of  poor  relief  in  great  cities 
knows  no  possible  solution  till  these  hotbeds  which  propagate 
degraded  pauper  life  are  absolutely  abolished. 

*  On  June  S,  1893, 1  visited  some  of  the  wretched  abodes  of  the  very  poor  in 
Chicago  with  an  officer  kindly  detailed  by  Chief  of  Police  Mr.  McClaughry. 
The  sights  were  too  sad  for  words.  One  cellar  was  so  poisoned  with  sewer 
gas  and  the  effluvia  of  leaking  water-closets  that  the  tenant  said,  in  not  wholly 
crushed  despair,  "  I  have  lost  one  child  here  and  don't  propose  to  lose 
another,"  (No.  359  Clark  Street).  Another  utterly  dilapidated  barrack,  (543 
Clark  Street)  about  30  X  9°  feet,  swarming  with  Italian  children  from  eight  to 
ten  families,  has  long  been  utterly  unfit  for  human  beings  to  live  in. 


PAINE.  43 

Would  to  God  my  words  could  strengthen  the  conviction  of  every 
delegate  to  this  Congress,  as  he  goes  home  to  his  own  city,  that 
slums  must  be  abolished. 

So  might  public  interest  be  more  keenly  aroused  and  the  good 
cause  gain  momentum,  as  one  city  after  another  joined  injudicious 
and  resolute  action. 

Intoxicating  Drink. 

Intoxicating  drink  is  the  second  great  cause  of  pauperism,  crime 
and  many  other  wretched  conditions  of  degraded  life. 

The  temperance  reform  makes  perceptible  headway,  although  the 
most  powerful  passions  of  mankind  oppose  its  progress.  In  the  last 
ten  years  England  has  seen  a  great  improvement  in  the  conditions 
of  the  working  people  in  this  respect. 

In  the  United  States  prohibition  or  high  license  or  restricted 
license,  or  the  Gothenburg  system,  or  that  new  state  system  in  South 
Carolina,  or  local  option  vi^hich  secures  no  license  in  many  cities  and 
towos,  all  these  movements  mark  a  great  popular  awakening  to  the 
terrible  influence  of  drunkenness  upon  the  welfare  of  the  people. 

Their  improved  conditions  where  temperance  prevails  are  so 
evident,  that  for  instance  in  Massachusetts  the  smaller  cities  are 
making  steady  progress  in  the  direction  of  voting  for  no  license  in 
the  annual  struggle.  The  contest  in  such  states  as  Iowa  and 
Kansas  marks  the  growing  popular  condemnation  of  the  evil.  '  In 
spite  of  all  this  progress,  more  or  less  visible  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  the  gigantic  power  of  the  rum-shop  to  drag  its  victims  down 
rages  through  the  world  with  insolent  defiance  of  the  sympathy  and 
intelligence  of  good  citizens  to  discover  and  execute  any  efficient 
method  of  suppression. 

My  object  here  is  to  propose  and  stimulate  an  alliance  of  these 
two  forces,  the  friends  of  temperance  and  ali  the  other  forces  work- 
ing to  improve  the  conditions  of  the  poor.  Such  an  alliance  will 
strengthen  both  and  lead  each  party  to  see  the  broader  scope  of 
their  task. 

Neglect  of  Children. 

The  third  prolific  cause  of  pauperism  is  found  in  the  conditions  of 
neglect  or  maltreatment  of  child-life  in  great  cities.* 

*  Hon.  A.  S.  Hewitt,  in  his  address  at  the  opening  of  the  United  Charities 
Building  of  New  York  {^Charities  Reviciu,  April,  1893,  p.  304),  says  :   "  In  this 


44  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

Two  specifications  of  the  boy's  indictment  against  society  have 
been  mentioned.  Absence  of  playgrounds  almost  compels  him  to 
choose,  in  a  great  city,  between  stupidity  and  crime.  Absence  of 
manual  training  forces  him  to  live  by  his  wits  or  by  commonest 
forms  of  labor.*  But  I  wish  especially  to  draw  attention  to  the  need 
of  a  great  development  of  charity  in  the  treatment  of  widows  with 
young  children. 

Large  cities  are  disputing  about  the  comparative  merits  of 
systems,  all  of  which  are  so  unworthy  of  our  age,  and  so  cruel  to  the 
mother  and  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  the  child  that  the  time  has 
come  for  worthier  treatment  by  the  best  method  science  and 
sympathy  can  devise. 

No  one  will  deny  the  influence  growing  out  of  different  systems 
of  dealing  with  this  class  of  children.  The  systems  in  England, 
New  York,  and  Massachusetts  are  radically  different.  No  one  of 
them  can  escape  condemnation. 

England  very  largely  refuses  out-relief  to  the  widow  with 
children,  breaks  up  the  family,  and  sends  one  or  more  of  the  children 
into  the  district  school  or  into  that  department  of  the  almshouse  called 
the  industrial  school,  usually  a  vast  institution  where  children  are 
gathered  by  hundreds.  The  mother  is  left  with  only  one  or  two 
children  whom  she  may  be  able  to  support. 

Am  I  wrong  in  ranking  the  English  system  as  least  favorable  for 
the  happiness  of  the  home  or  the  future  welfare  of  the  child,  unjust 

city  a  large  number  of  children  of  both  sexes  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  poverty 
and  vice,  and  even  crime,  which  educates  them  to  be  paupers  and  criminals 
instead  of  training  them  to  become  honest  workmen  and  good  citizens.  And 
for  this  result,  which  is  generally  no  fault  of  their  own,  they  are  punished,  and, 
along  with  them,  the  industrious  class  of  the  community  is  also  punished  by 
taxation  for  the  support  of  poorhouses,  hospitals  and  criminals.  Gangs  of 
young  men  not  yet  twenty-one  years  of  age  are  to  be  found  in  many  parts  of 
the  city,  who,  not  having  been  permitted  to  learn  trades,  or  having  been  denied 
the  opportunity  to  follow  some  useful  occupation,  have  grown  up  in  idleness, 
and  expend  their  animal  energies  in  excesses  which  make  them  a  terror  to  the 
neighborhood  and  a  trial  to  the  police,  the  only  barrier  between  them  and 
crime.  In  time  most  of  them  necessarily  become  criminals  and  they  are  very 
sure  to  breed  criminals.  The  public  is  not  dealing  with  this  great  menace  to 
society  either  with  sense  or  firmness." 

*  Which  alcoves  in  ail  the  vast  and  varied  World's  Fair  are  richer  in  promise 
for  the  welfare  of  the  coming  generation  of  men  than  the  alcoves  full  of  the 
results  of  manual  training  in  many  cities  ? 


PAINE. 


45 


to  both  mother  and  child,  and  not  worthy  of  the  Christian  philan- 
thropy of  the  age  ?  * 

The  New  York  system  has  no  provision  of  outdoor  relief  for  such 
a  family  of  children,  and  resembles  the  English  method  in  that  the 
family  must  be  broken  up,  but  the  children  instead  of  being  sent  to 
great  public  institutions,  are  distributed  among  private  institutions 
which  receive  a  per  capita  allowance  from  the  State  ;  tempting  them 
to  promote  this  destruction  of  family  life. 

This  method  seems  to  me  next  to  merit  condemnation  because  it 
allows  money  consideration  to  break  up  families,  even  where  a 
worthy  mother  is  struggling  to  preserve  her  child  and  her  home, 
and  because  secondly  these  children  are  condemned  to  institution 
life,  and  as  yet,  as  Mrs.  Lowell  of  New  York  says.t  "  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  poorest  home,  unless  it  be  a  degraded  one,  is 
better  than  any  institution." 

Mrs.  Lowell  brings  this  further  charge: 

"That  unfortunately  in  New  York  city  at  least,  the  custom  has  grown  up  of 
requiring  that  judges  shall  commit  children  to  private  institutions,  as  a  neces- 
sary condition  of  obtaining  payment  from  the  city  for  their  support  This 
undoubtedly  is  a  dangerous  proceeding,  since  the  familiarization  with  a  court 
of  law  tends  to  destroy  the  dread  of  arrest,  which  should  be  fostered  as  one  of 
the  strongest  deterrent  influences  against  crime.  To  bring  a  child  before  a 
judge  in  a  criminal  court  in  order  to  secure  his  entrance  into  an  institution  of 
charity  is  a  most  unwise  measure." 

• 
The  dependent  child  problem  has  attained  great  proportions  in 

New  York  city  where  15,697  boys  and  girls  are  supported  at  an 

*  Quest.  5838. —  What  system  would  you  like  to  see  substituted  ? 

Mrs.  Charles. — "I  should  like  to  see  boarding-out  as  far  as  possible,  and 
the  plan  of  taking  children  from  their  mothers  and  sending  them  to  a  district 
school,  by  way  of  giving  them  poor  relief,  I  think  is  a  mistake.  It  would  be 
far  better,  in  my  opinion,  I  having  had  very  considerable  experience,  to  give 
the  poor  widows  a  little  outdoor  relief,  and  allow  them  to  keep  their  children 
at  home.  It  acts  in  this  way  also  upon  the  mothers.  They  find  that  they  can 
part  with  their  children  and  throw  off  their  responsibilities;  and  it  is  not 
right  for  any  one  to  be  allowed  to  throw  off  the  responsibility  she  has  volun- 
tarily incurred.  That  is  another  evil  of  the  district  school  system,  that  poor 
law  guardians  will  give  widows  relief  in  the  shape  of  sending  their  children  to 
these  schools ;  then  the  widows  are  free,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  have  known 
many  instances  where  the  widows  have  not  conducted  themselves  as  well  as 
they  would  have  done  if  they  had  had  the  responsibility  of  their  children  at 
home." — Report  House  of  Lords  Com.,  Poor  Law  Relief,  Aug.  '88,  p.  641. 

1  Public  Relief  and  Private  Charity,  p.  74. 


46  PUBLIC    TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

annual  charge  of  $1,500,000  out  of  a  population  of  1,600,000  in  1889, 
or  a  proportion  of  i  to  100.  While  Massachusetts  had  1951 
dependent  children  out  of  2,000,000  souls,  or  i  to  1025,  Penn- 
sylvania had  10,000  dependent  children,  i  to  450,  while  Michigan 
had  only  200  dependent  children,  or  i  to  10,000.* 

The  Massachusetts  system  aims  to  keep  families  together  where 
there  is  a  not  totally  unfit  home,  and  if  relief  is  not  obtained  from 
some  other  source,  the  overseers  of  the  poor  give,  and  continue, 
needed  relief  to  a  widow  until  the  children  grow  to  an  age  when 
their  labor  added  to  their  mother's  earnings  can  support  the  home.f 

Many  competent  judges  cannot  believe  that  the  Massachusetts 
system  works  well  for  the  child,  though  it  is  certainly  more  humane 
for  the  mother  than  the  system  either  in  England  or  New  York. 

The  poisonous  influence  of  our  outdoor  pauper  relief  must  be  felt 
upon  the  child's  character  in  many  cases,  yet  the  family  is  kept 
together,  and  the  children  are  brought  up  under  the  loving  care  and 
influence  of  their  mother,  free  from  the  injurious  influence  of  any 
institution,  and  especially  escaping  the  almshouse  brand. 

Critics  who  urge  the  total  abolition  of  outdoor  relief  may  claim 
that  this  system  works  badly  even  in  this  class  of  cases,  and  some- 
times with  justice  when  pauper  relief  leaves  upon  the  child  a  pauper 
taint. 

Do  you  ask  whether  in  Massachusetts  we  think  our  system  the 
best  and  are  resolved  to  maintain  it  ?     I  answer  frankly,  No. 

Here  is  a  better  method  which  I  believe  to  be  the  best.  Aid  the 
mother  to  maintain  her  home,  provide  adequate  relief,  but  free  from 
any  pauper  poison.  Let  it  go  from  her  church,  from  some  private 
society,  from  some  benevolent  individual.  Let  it  go  as  from  the 
hand  of  a  friend,  as  the  circumstances  of  each  special  case  may 
suggest  to  be  best  to  the  friendly  visitor  who  undertakes  the  con- 
tinuous task.  Shame  on  the  charity  of  any  city  which  shrinks  from 
this  duty. 

This  is  the  reform  which  in  the  judgment  of  many  of  us  in  Massa- 
chusetts, should  be  engrafted  upon  our  public  relief  system. 

*  Report  State  Board  of  Char,  of  N.  Y.,  1890,  p.  33. 

t  Prof.  Francis  Wayland  in  his  paper  on  outdoor  relief  [1877]  gives  the 
weight  of  his  judgment  in  favor  of  outdoor  relief,  especially  in  "  cases  where 
the  head  of  the  family  is  removed  by  death  or  prostrated  by  sickness,  and 
where  there  is  reasonable  prospect  of  the  mother  being  able  to  keep  her 
family  together  and  ultimately  maintain  them"  (page  9). 


PAINE.  47 

This  is  the  class  of  cases  which  has  always  been  used  most  effec- 
tively by  our  overseers  of  the  poor  in  advocating  the  necessity  of  out- 
door relief.  Taking  from  the  overseers  this  class  of  cases  would 
greatly  facilitate  its  total  abolition,  or  great  reduction.  This  is  the 
special  reform  which  I  strenuously  advocated  in  the  report  of  the 
Associated  Charities  of  Boston  in  1882,  basing  my  argument  upon 
the  analysis  of  938  families  in  the  care  of  one  conference,  of  whom 
only  370  received  aid  in  1884-5  ^^  1885-6.  Only  119  of  those  were 
aided  in  the  last  year  by  the  overseers  of  the  poor,  and  of  these  only 
20  received  over  $20  each,  of  whom  four  were  aided  because  there 
were  children,  receiving  in  all  $159.50.* 

The  result  of  this  analysis  was  that  a  few  thousand  dollars  of 
benevolent  funds  would  replace  out-relief  to  this  class  of  widows  and 
orphans,  and  provide  for  them  in  the  best  possible  way,  by  judicious 
aid  from  a  friendly  hand,  usually  not  known  either  to  child  or 
neighbor.  How  long  will  it  be  before  charity  fully  assumes  this 
loving  but  imperative  duty  to  the  widow  with  her  children  ? 

I  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  list  of  wrongs  which  boys  and  girls 
suffer  at  the  hands  of  society,  often  thereby  started  on  a  wrong  road 
through  life. 

Enough  if  I  can  show  that  neglect  and  maltreatment  of  the  "  child 
problem  in  great  cities"  is  one  of  the  prolific  causes  of  pauperism 
and  crime  which  must  be  remedied  if  society  is  in  earnest  to  improve 
the  conditions  of  the  poor.f 

Indiscriminate  Abns^iving. 

Indiscriminate  almsgiving  is  the  fourth  and  a  most  potent  cause  of 
pauperism.  It  has  been  considered  in  these  conferences  from  the 
start.  Yet  we  have  much  to  learn.  Charles  Lamb  is  its  only 
defender,  who  says  "Give,  asking  no  questions."     Fowle  states  the 

*  Boston  is  in  recent  years  devoting  more  thought  and  care  to  the  child 
problem  and  with  excellent  results.  See  reports  of  Childreii's  Aid  Society, 
North  Bc7inet  Street  Home,  and  Boys^  Institute  of  Industry. 

tin  **Poverty  and  its  Relief  in  the  U.  .S".,"  p.  14,  Dr.  Aschrott  says  :  "The 
societies  for  organizing  charities  took  up  this  movement,  and  to  their  inspira- 
tion it  is  due  that  the  number  of  charitable  societies  which  care  for  poor, 
deserted,  neglected  and  exposed  children,  has  increased  in  a  very  rapid 
manner.  All  America  is  now  covered  with  a  network  of  so-called  children's 
aid  societies.  There  is  scarcely  a  state  in  the  Union  in  which  there  is  not  at 
least  one  such  society  to  be  found." 


48  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

rule  to  be  "  that  the  amount  of  pauperism  is  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  relief." 

Let  me  avoid  the  vexed  question  whether  total  abolition  of  public 
outdoor  relief  is  judicious,  in  order  to  fasten  attention  on  the  principle 
universally  accepted  by  experts,  that  as  lax  relief  has  created  pauper- 
ism, so  adherence  by  private  as  well  as  public  relief,  especially  by 
the  charitable  public,  to  rigid  rules,  excluding  all  but  those  whose 
need  is  well  founded,  has  greatly  lessened  both  the  number  of  pau- 
pers as  well  as  the  cost  of  relief.* 

Brooklyn,  with  its  dramatic  and  wonderful  reform,  little  Brook- 
linet  also,  and  several  great  English  unions,  all  teach  the  same 
lesson. 

*  The  Boston  Commission  of  1878  on  the  treatment  of  the  poor,  declared 
(page  5)  : 

"  Experience  shows  that  a  steady  persistence  in  limiting  relief  to  support  in ' 
some  public  institution",  where' labor  is  required  under  reasonable  restraint, 
diminishes  the  amount  of  outdoor  relief  without  any  proportional  increase  of 
indoor    relief.     The    applicant    supports    himself,    or    is  provided  for  by   his 
friends." 

But  the  committee  are  not  ready  to  recommend  the  abolition  of  outdoor 
relief,  but  only  that  rules  for  its  sharp  limitation  should  be  rigidly  adhered  to, 
and  they  say  (page  8)  that  the  "rules  may  be  relaxed  for  recent  widows  with 
young  children." 

I  The  experience  of  Brookline  shows  how  effectively  an  improved  system  may 
reduce  pauperism. 

Mrs.  James  M.  Codman  states  that  outdoor  relief  had  amounted  to  $9,000 
for  a  population  of  6,000,  and  that  after  careful  investigation  had  somewhat 
reduced  the  numbers,  there  were  still  355  persons  on  the  list  of  paupers. 
After  strong  opposition,  it  was  decided  to  build  an  almshouse,  and  "notice 
was  then  given  that  in  future  no  rent  would  be  paid  for  any  one,  no  fuel 
allowed,  no  able-bodied  man  would  be  helped  in  any  way,  and  outdoor  relief 
would  be  given  only  in  very  exceptional  cases." 

"Now  for  the  results.  Within  a  year  the  number  of  persons  relieved  fell  to 
53,  no  able-bodied  man  has  ever  even  applied  for  help,  the  number  at  the  alms- 
house has  never  exceeded  seven,  and  this  number  was  only  at  the  time  when 
the  experiment  was  tried  of  caring  for  some  of  the  harmless  insane  there,  an 
experiment  speedily  abandoned.  While  the  population  of  the  town  has 
doubled,  the  amount  expended  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  is  now  $6,000,  of 
which  $2,500  goes  to  pay  the  board  of  our  largely  increased  number  of  insane 
in  the  state  institutions,  leaving  $3,500  the  amount  actually  expended  for  the 
poor;  $!,50o  for  the  almshouse,  and  the  balance  for  outdoor  relief  in  our  own 
town,  and  largely  for  temporary  relief  of  our  poor  in  other  towns  and  cities. 
With  all  this  there  has  been  no  sutiering,"—  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  1891,  page  47. 


PAINE. 


49 


Yet  the  recent  facts  must  give  us  pause.  Rev.  S.  A.  Barnett,  of 
St.  Jude's,  Whitechapel,  the  head  of  Toynbee  Hall,  states  that  the 
effort  to  provide  pensions  by  private  charity  for  the  aged  worthy 
poor  must  be  counted  a  failure ;  since  it  is  with  great  difficulty  that 
loo  pensioners  in  the  three  East  End  missions  of  London,  where 
out-relief  is  given  up,  are  provided  by  appeals  through  the  whole  of 
London. 

Again,  the  conviction  that  the  lot  of  the  poor  in  England  is  too 
hard  and  their  treatment  under  the  poor  law  too  severe  has  caused 
such  reaction  that  a  pension  scheme  of  $85,000,000  a  year  hangs  in 
the  air,  and  a  Royal  Commission  has  been  created  to  consider  the 
condition  of  the  poor. 

Of  course  the  lot  of  the  laborer  in  England  cannot  be  compared 
with  that  in  this  country.  Still  let  us  beware  of  any  extreme  attack 
upon  outdoor  relief  which  shall  result  in  violent  reaction. 

Three  reforms  of  the  abuses  of  outdoor  relief  should  receive 
universal  sanction,  and  will  effect  in  very  large  measure  the  end 
which  all  parties  desire :  dealing  with  the  unworthy,  those  out  of  work 
and  the  inefficient. 

First.  To  the  unworthy,  rigid  prohibition  of  all  relief,  public  or 
private,  so  that,  abandoning  all  hope  of  it,  they  shall  seek  their  own 
support.  This  includes  the  lazy,  idle,  shiftless,  extravagant  or  vicious 
paupers,  as  also  in  most  cases  those  with  relatives  or  friends. 

Second.  The  provision  for  men  or  women  out  of  work  demands 
most  serious  study  of  ablest  economists  and  statesmen.  The  magni- 
tude of  the  problem  in  London,  present  and  prospective,  affrights 
the  imagination.  One  road  leads  to  danger ;  permanent  municipal 
industries  which  would  attract  the  shiftless  into  larger  masses, 
whereas  the  only  safety  lies  in  scattering  them  through  the  com- 
munity.* 

Not  of  course  that  they  should  starve.  They  must  be  dealt  with 
as  individuals.  How  great  cities  like  London,  Chicago  and  New 
York  escape  the  dilemma  of  cruelty  or  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving, 
without  friendly  visitors  in  goodly  number,  we  in  Boston  do  not 
know. 

The  third  and  grand  reform  aims  to  recreate  the  inefficient,  always 
in  great  cities  a  numerous  class,  into  self-support  by  skill  and  cheer, 

*  Beware,  however,  of  aiding  by  alms  able-bodied  men  or  women. 


50  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM, 

and  to  save  them  from  gratuitous  relief  as  deadly  poison.*  I  cannot 
learn  what  New  York,  Chicago  or  London  do  with  this  class  except 
to  leave  them  to  struggle  with  the  law  that  the  unfit  must  perish. 

Charles  Booth  in  his  brilliant  chapter  on  "  The  Unemployed," 
expresses  regret  that  the  problems  of  the  working  class  are  often 
confounded  with  the  problems  of  the  inefficient. 

To  confound  these  two  problems  is  to  render  the  solution  of  both 
impossible.! 

The  problem  of  poor  relief  in  cities  has  no  department  where 
results  are  more  largely  dependent  on  the  most. judicious  treatment 
of  both  science  and  sympathy. 

To  the  inefficient,  when  out  of  work  and  in  need,  nothing  can  be 
worse  than  alms  and  doles,  dragging  them  down  into  paupers.  Noth- 
ing can  be  better  than  cheer,  counsel  and  assistance  to  gain  needed 
skill  and  courage. 

Professor  Franklin  H.  Giddings,  in  his  essay  on  the  Ethics  of 
Social  Progress,  develops  a  new  law  of  the  evolution  of  society,  or 
rather  of  a  new  possible  slavery,  with  startling  power: 

"Neither  oppression  nor  greed  has  been  at  any  time  the  first  cause  of  legal 
bondage  or  of  economic  dependence.  Both  are  secondary  causes,  induced  by 
experiences  with  a  slavery  already  existent. 

"  Modern  civilization  does  not  require,  it  does  not  even  need,  the  drudgery 
of  needle-women  or  the  crushing  toil  of  men  in  a  score  of  life-destroying 
occupations.  If  these  wretched  beings  should  drop  out  of  existence  and  no 
others  stood  ready  to  fill  their  places,  the  economic  activities  of  the  world 
would  not  greatly  suffer.  A  thousand  devices  latent  in  inventive  brains  would 
quickly  make  good  any  momentary  loss.  The  true  view  of  the  facts  is  that 
these  people  continue  to  exist  after  the  kinds  of  work  that  they  know  how  to 
perform  have  ceased  to  be  of  any  considerable  value  to  society.  Society  con- 
tinues to  employ  them  for  a  remuneration  not  exceeding  the  cost  of  getting  the 
work  done  in  some  other  and  perhaps  better  way. 

"  The  economic  law  here  referred  to  is  one  that  has  been  too  much  neglected 
in  scientific  discussions.  It  ought  to  be  repeated  and  illustrated  at  every 
opportunity,  for  at  present  it  stands  ip  direct  contradiction  to  current  prepos- 
sessions. We  are  told  incessantly  that  unskilled  labor  creates  the  wealth  of  the 
world. 

"It  would  be  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  large  classes  of  unskilled  labor 
hardly  create  their  own  subsistence.     The  laborers  that  have  no  adaptiveness, 

*"  I  consider  it  the  greatest  problem  in  philanthropy  to  make  human  beings 
who  are  capable  of  work  out  of  individuals  who  otherwise  must  become 
paupers,  and  in  this  way  to  create  useful  members  of  society." — My  Views  on 
Philanthropy,  by  Baron  de  Hirsch,  p.  i.  North  American  Review,  July,  1891. 

jMiss  Jane  Addams,  in  Social  Progress,  page  55. 


PAINE. 


51 


that  bring  no  new  ideas  to  their  work,  that  have  no  suspicion  of  the  next  best 
thing  to  turn  to  in  an  emergency,  might  be  much  better  identified  with  the 
dependent  classes  than  with  the  wealth-creators.  Precisely  the  same  economic 
law  offers  the  true  interpretation  of  ancient  slavery.  In  strictness  civilization 
did  not  rest  on  slavery.  It  was  not  in  any  true  sense  maintained  by  slavery. 
The  conditions  that  created  the  civilization  created  economic  dependence, and 
they  are  working  in  the  same  way,  with  similar  results,  to-day. 

"  Ancient  civilization  accepted  the  dependence,  and  utilized  it  in  the  crude 
form  of  slavery.  Modern  civilization  accepts  and  utilizes  it  in  the  slightly 
more  refined  form  of  the  wages  system.  Certain  great  social  tasks  of  creative 
organization  have  always  confronted  our  race.  The  enforced  effort  to  achieve 
them  has  been  history's  great  competitive  examination.  The  slaves  and  serfs 
have  been  those  who  have  failed.  The  first  great  necessity  was  social  unity, 
the  power  to  act  together  in  a  disciplined  way,  and  the  first  slaves  were  those 
who  could  not  create  a  sufficiently  coherent  social  organization  to  sustain  a 
growing  civilization.  They  had  to  make  way  before  others  who  were  equal  to 
that  great  achievement,  and  they  became  slaves  not  solely  nor  chiefly  because 
of  a  conqueror's  tyranny,  but  primarily  because  slavery  or  serfdom  was  practi- 
cally the  only  economic  disposition  that  could  be  made  of  them.  To-day  social 
unity  has  been  in  good  measure  established  and  the  world  has  entered  on  yet 
larger  undertakings.  The  condition  and  assurance  of  freedom  to-day  is  the 
ability  to  devise  new  things,  to  create  new  opportunities,  to  make  not  only  two 
blades  of  grass  grow  where  one  grew  before,  but  to  make  a  hundred  kinds  of 
grass  grow  where  before  grew  only  one  kind. 

"Accordingly,  the  practically  unfree  task-workers  of  this  present  time  aie 
those  who,  unaided,  can  accomplish  none  of  these  new  things.  They  are  those 
who  might  do  well  in  old  familiar  ways,  but  who  have  nothing  to  turn  to  when 
their  ways  cease  to  be  of  value  to  the  world.  To  live  they  must  force  depreci- 
ated services  upon  society  on  any  terms  that  society  can  continue  to  pay. 
They  are  unfree  task-workers  not  because  society  chooses  to  oppress  them,  but 
because  society  has  not  yet  devised  or  stumbled  upon  any  other  disposition  to 
make  of  them.  Civilization,  therefore,  is  not  cruel.  It  is  ever  supporting  and 
trying  in  many  ways  to  utilize  the  wrecks  and  failures  of  its  own  imperfect 
past." 

What  can  withstand  this  new  inroad  of  slavery,  this  sinking-  of  the 
unskilled  into  social  bondage,  but  a  thorough  system  of  teaching 
skill  to  the  inefficient,  supplemented  by  almost  infinite  social  sympathy 
for  those  who  fail  ? 

One  of  the  best  standards  to-day  to  test  the  progress  of  construc- 
tive Christian  charity  of  the  various  towns  and  cities  of  our  own  or 
any  country,  is  to  see  what  practical  measures  have  been  devised  to 
convert  the  inefficient  into  an  efficient  worker. 

Charity  sewing-schools  were  rather  a  poor  start.  Laundries 
followed,  and  promise  well. 


52  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

In  Boston,  Trinity  Church  has  for  a  dozen  years  carried  on  Trinity 
Laundry  to  teach  skill  and  provide  work,  employing  about  a  hundred 
different  women  annually,  and  paying  out  in  wages  about  $3,500 
each  year. 

Several  other  agencies  are  at  work  also  expressly  aiming  to  teach 
skill  in  some  handiwork  to  adults  who  desire  this  aid,  some  of  whom 
should  rank  as  inefficient,  while  others  may  have  used  well  all  their 
opportunities,  but  are  ambitious  of  further  progress. 

Then  the  Wells  Memorial  Workingmen's  Institute  has  for  years 
offered  free  evening  instruction  to  journeymen  seeking  knowledge  in 
their  own  trades.  The  class  on  the  steam  engine  attracts  mechanics  to 
the  weekly  lecture  from  towns  within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles,  while 
that  on  electricity  given  by  Prof  Puffer  to  over  a  hundred  of  the 
journeymen  working  in  all  departments  of  that  difficult  art,  is 
perhaps  the  most  interesting  attempt  to  aid  workingmen  to  increased 
skill. 

The  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York,  and  the  Pratt  Institute  in 
Brooklyn,  train  young  men  before  they  begin  work.  So  also  do 
Col.  Auchmuty's  admirable  trade  schools  in  New  York.  The 
mechanic  art  schools  of  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Boston,  St.  Louis 
and  Chicago,  are  full  of  promise  for  the  increased  skill  and  larger 
earnings  and  brighter  future  of  the  youth  of  our  land. 

Has  all  of  this  nothing  to  do  with  my  subject?  Everything  to  do 
with  it.  I  will  be  silent  in  despair,  unless  we  who  want  to  solve  the 
problem  of  our  cities'  poverty  can  hope  to  see  our  whole  land  tingle 
with  the  fixed  and  intelligent  resolve  that  the  boys  and  the  girls  as 
they  grow  up,  shall  have,  besides  such  training  of  the  brain  in  books 
as  they  can  get  and  hold,  such  training  also  of  all  the  rest  of  the 
body,  the  various  senses,  especially  the  eye  and  the  finger,  as  will 
fill  the  land  with  artistic  and  skilled  mechanics,  and  so  increase  the 
earning  powers  of  labor  and  open  a  brighter  future  for  workingmen. 

Here  then  is  one  great  remedy  for  the  evil  conditions  which  create 
need.  The  whole  standard  of  manual  skill  and  of  cultivated  taste 
must  be  raised  and  widely  disseminated,  so  that  the  children  of  the 
working  classes  shall  have  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life,  and  not 
start  under  such  heavy  handicap  that  they  soon  fail  and  despair. 

What  city  will,  however,  dare  to  appeal  from  my  decision  that  for 
thorough  system  for  training  the  inefficient  into  skill,  and  inspiring 
them  with  new  courage  for  the  struggle  of  life,  Brooklyn  is  entitled 
to  the  palm  ? 


PAINE.  53 

The  Bedford  Industrial  Buildifig*  just  completed  at  Brooklyn 
under  the  guiding  inspiration  of  Mr.  G.  B,  Buzelle,  who  has  just 

*"The  work  of  our  Bureau  of  Charities  in  Brooklyn  has  been  in  part  the 
evolution  of  our  surroundings  in  Brooklyn,  part  Mr.  Buzelle's  ten  years 
devoted  service,  and  part  and  most  largely  the  experience  of  some  of  our  most 
capable  friendly  visitors,  committeemen  or  trustees,  in  which  together  with 
many  others  I  have  had  a  certain  part.  Actually  the  woodyards,  laundries 
and  work-rooms  in  turn  were  embodiments  of  suggestions  and  requests 
coming  back  to  the  board  from  our  visitors,  and  not  provided  in  advance  of 
such. 

"  We  have  been  occupying  for  five  years,  as  tenants,  a  building  which  we 
fitted  up  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  the  new  Bedford  Building  is  fitted  up, 
and  in  which  our  central  offices,  central  laundry,  workrooms,  etc.,  are  now 
located  under  a  twenty  years'  lease.  In  the  Bedford  Building,  which  we  own, 
we  were  not  able  to  make  a  great  many  changes  that  seemed  to  us  improve- 
ments. The  changes  we  did  make  are  really  of  minor  importance.  That  tells 
you  better  than  anything  else  how  satisfied  we  have  been  with  the  plans 
evolved  five  years  ago.  Besides  the  building  which  we  lease,  and  the  Bedford 
Building  which  we  own,  we  need  one  more  building,  but  shall  have  to  wait 
some  years  for  it.  The  three  buildings  together  would  give  us  a  triangle  with 
about  two  miles  distance  on  each  side,  three  centres  of  work  from  which  we 
think  we  could  take  care  of  our  work  in  good  shape  for  a  good  many  years  to 
come.  We  should  not  change  the  scheme  or  plan  of  the  buildings  in  any  way 
that  I  can  now  think  of. 

"As  to  the  general  interest  in  Brooklyn  in  the  Bureau  of  Charities,  I  should 
say  it  is  steadily  increasing  and  in  a  wholesome  fashion,  but  our  supporters 
are  more  among  the  middle  and  less  wealthy  classes  than  among  those  of  the 
largest  means.  This  is  wholesome  for  the  future,  while  it  drops  the  financial 
burden  on  a  few  for  the  present." — Copy  of  Letter  of  Alfred  T.  White  to  K.  T. 
Paine,  May  27,  1893. 

"  Day  after  day  and  week  after  week,"  writes  Alfred  T.  White,  "  our  friendly 
visitors  came  back  to  us  saying,  'This  man  or  this  woman  says  he  cannot  get 
work,  but  would  tal^e  it  if  he  could.  What  shall  we  do  ?'  To-day  we  answer  ' 
the  question  in  two  well-equipped  laundries,  two  large  workrooms  for 
unskilled  and  unrecommended  women,  and  two  woodyards  for  able-bodied 
men,  all  under  the  control  of  the  Brooklyn  Bureau  of  Charities.  There  the 
visitor  quickly  learns  whether  the  applicant  really  wishes  work,  and  whether 
he  will  stick  to  work  if  found  ;  and  if  this  be  proved,  effort  is  made  to  secure 
for  him  more  permanent  and  remunerative  employment.  Some  of  our  -visitors 
are  wise  enough  to  recognize  that  the  moment  a  woman  enters  the  workroom 
marks  a  crisis  iti  the  life  of  many  an  applicant  for  aid,  and  as  the  chemist  stands 
by  his  crucible  and  watches  for  the  time  when  the  pure  metal  may  be  detached 
from  its  impurities,  so  the  friend  who  stands  by  in  such  a  crisis  of  life  sees  the 
elements  of  character  slowly  separating,  and  may  eliminate  some  of  the  baser  stuff 
before  this  supreme  opportunity  is  lost.     Such  work-rooms  without  the  friendly 


54  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

closed  a  life  of  exquisite  devotion,  and  of  Mr.  A.  T.  White,  and  by 
gifts  incited  by  their  aid,  at  a  cost  of  about  $40,000,  seems  to  me  on 
the  whole  the.best  building  ever  yet  built  as  a  workshop  of  human 
character,  to  lift  on  to  their  feet  the  poor  who  largely  for  lack  of  skill 
are  discouraged  and  down,  and  to  enable  them  to  stand  and  walk. 

The  Bedford  Industrial  Building  seems  to  me  to  serve  such  a 
useful  function  in  the  supremely  interesting  problem  of  how  to  deal 
with  the  inefficient,  broken-down,  depressed  poor  of  our  great  cities, 
not  properly  equipped  for  the  struggle  of  life,  that  I  try  thus  to 
attract  the  utmost  attention  to  its  methods  and  aims. 

What  city  has  got  its  one  or  more  Bedford   Industrial  Buildings? 

What  city  is  there  which  can  do  without? 

Let  me  magnify  my  office  for  a  good  purpose,  and  declare  that  no 
city  is  adequately  equipped  which  has  not  one  or  more  Industrial 
Training  Buildings  to  provide  training  for  the  inefficient,  and  while 
this  process  is  going  on,  also  powerful  personal  encouragement  and 
cheer  from  loving  friends. 

Conclusions. 

These  are  the  conclusions  drawn  from  a  study  of  the  sadder  side 
of  life  in  great  cities. 

The  separate  problem  of  poor  relief  is  insoluble. 

Pauperism,  vice  and  crime  are  common  factors  of  the  inseparable 
and  tremendous  problem  of  how  to  uplift  the  general  conditions  of 
life  among  the  poor. 

First.  The  difficulties  increase  in  more  than  geometrical  ratio 
with  the  masses  of  congestion  no  longer  of  pauperism  alone,  but  of 
vice  and  crime  and  broken  health  commingled  into  base  and  often 
brutal  degradation. 

Second.  Negative  treatment,  the  mere  principle  of  repression, 
while  just  as  needed  to-day  and  always,  as  when  declared  in  the 
reform  of  1834,  not  only  fails  to  repel  paupers  in  their  lowest  estate, 
but  tends  to  degrade  them  into  that  reckless  or  brutal  indifference, 
so  much  sadder  for  them  as  well  as  more  hopeless  for  society,  while 
also  it  is  open  to  such  charge  of  harshness  to  the  worthy  aged  poor, 
more  numerous  in  England  than  here,  that  English  philanthropy 

visitor  -would  be  worthless  ;  they  wotild  be  solely  so  many  shops  ;  but  the  friendly 
visitor^s  work  gives  them  a  cliaracter  and  influence  which  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated.''^— On  the  Friendly  Visitor^s  Opportunity.  Charities  Review  for 
^/r//,  1893,/.  328. 


PAINE.  55 

wavers  towards  a  vast  scheme  of  pensioning  all  the  aged,  good  and 
bad,  rich  and  poor  alike,  a  burden  I  fear  too  tremendous  to  be 
borne. 

This  principle  of  repression  sinks  the  humane  Wayfarers'  Lodge 
of  Boston,  or  Philadelphia,  or  as  proposed  in  New  York,  into  the 
prison  cell  of  London's  casual  ward. 

Repression  alone  makes  guardians  or  overseers  of  the  poor,  and 
all  relieving  agents,  managers  of  almshouses,  jails  and  prisons,  and 
especially  the  police*  who  guard  the  city's  peace,  hard,  cold  and 
unsympathetic,  so  that  the  sad  multitude  who  pass  under  their  influ- 
ence grow  more  brutally  defiant. 

In  short,  mere  repression  is  a  cruel  and  unchristian  failure. 

Third.  Therefore,  all  work  among  the  poor  and  wretched, 
whether  done  by  official  agents,  or  pohce,  or  friendly  visitors,  whose 
name  should  be  legion,  all  efforts  to  keep  families  unbroken  and 
children  near  to  the  love  of  a  widowed  mother,  all  efforts  to  train 
and  cheer  the  inefficient  must  be  permeated,  energized,  ennobled 
by  the  mighty  force  of  love; — 

Love,  which  Drummond  shows  to  be  the  greatest  thing  in  the 
world,  in  that  burst  of  inspiration  which  every  one  should  read; — 

Love,  described  by  St.  Paul  in  one  of  the  three  noblest  chapters  of 
all  human  literature  ; — 

Love,  which  so  moved  the  soul  of  God,  that  He  sent  His  Son  to 
our  rescue; — 

Love,  not  in  weak  sentiment,  but  strengthened  by  all  the  vigorous 
firmness  of  strong  men,  so  that  repression  may  be  resolute ;  yet 
conscious  love  shall  permeate  every  fibre  of  the  force  which  would 
hope  to  deal  successfully  with  the  pauper,  the  criminal  or  the  brute. 

Love  is  the  motive  to  summon  hundreds  of  friendly  visitors  from 
their  sunny  homes,  to  go  down  into  the  wretched  abodes  of  gloom, 
where  the  battle  of  civilization  is  to  be  lost  or  won,  read)'  to  act  up 
to  their  motto  of  "  Not  alms  but  a  friend,"!  and  seeking  a  fuller 

*" Moreover,  there  are  few  persons  in  the  community  more  deserving  of  the 
sympathy  and  support  of  good  people  than  an  honest  policeman  located  in  a 
bad  city  quarter.  He  has  to  stem  the  tide  of  the  city's  moral  defilement,  as 
no  other  persgn  is  called  upon  to  do;  and  he  is  almost  wholly  deprived  of  the 
uplift,  which  nearly  every  social  worker  now  feels,  that  comes  from  knowing 
of  a  great  body  of  true  men  and  women  who  are  glad  of  the  work  he  is  doing." 

fFirst  used  by  Kobert  Treat  Paine  in  his  address  to  the  Baptist  Union  on 
Cec.  29,  1879 


56  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

measure  of  ingenuity,  discrimination  and  patience  than  Boston  has 
learned,  guided  by  the  lesson  of  encouraging  success  described  by 
Alfred  T.  White,  in  Brooklyn,  inspired  by  the  life  work  and  words 
of  wisdom  of  Octavia  Hill  in  London,  till  this  spirit  shall  recreate 
the  relations  of  the  wretched  and  the  happy  ;  and  the  superb  energies 
of  philanthropy  in  New  York  shall  not  rest  content  even  with  such 
noble  gifts  as  John  M.  Kennedy's  offering  of  a  United  Charities  Build- 
ing at  a  cost  of  $600,000,  as  a  headquarters  for  organized  charity, 
but  all  shall  rather  see  in  it  a  proclamation  of  hope  for  every  sufferer, 
and  of  summons  to  every  child  of  God  to  give  personal  service  in 
adequate  measure  till  the  sunlight  of  heaven  shall  dispel  miasma 
from  every  home  of  woe. 

So  that  before  long  personal  service,  easily  equal  to  the  task  in 
every  other  American  city,  shall  not  fail  in  Chicago,  nor  even  in 
New  York,  whose  congested  population  gathers  into  crowded  limits 
the  various  forms  of  degraded  life  from  many  foreign  lands,  and 
across  the  ocean  shall  find  some  remedy  for  that  Dead  Sea  of  Liver- 
pool, and  rise  to  the  supreme  task  for  charity  which  earth  now  offers 
in  the  countless  multitude  of  London. 

Love  is  the  motive  which  builds  into  beauty  and  power  Toynbee 
Hall  and  Oxford  House,  Neighborhood  Guilds,  Andover  House  and 
Denison,  and,  not  surpassed  by  any,  Hull  House  here  at  Chicago; 
all  these  college  settlements,  the  latest  and  loveliest  manifestation  of 
the  fierce  grip  which  suffering  and  sin  fasten  on  the  sympathies  of 
noble  culture. 

Love  is  the  force  which  impels  Brooklyn  to  build  its  Bedford 
Industrial  Buildings  and  to  fill  them  with  a  spirit  of  wisdom  and 
sympathy  which  alone  can  save  the  army  of  inefficient  from  their 
impending  slavery. 

Love  is  the  force  which  summons  all  whose  lot  is  sunny  to  join 
workingmen  in  their  strenuous  demand  for  justice. 

Love  is  the  force  to  ennoble  the  career  of  the  policeman  into 
dignity,  prompting  him  to  save  by  friendly  counsel  the  wild  lads 
before  their  wildness  issues  in  such  crime  that  he  must  strike  it 
down. 

Love  is  the  motive  and  personal  service  is  the  method  by  which 
tens  of  thousands  of  Christian  churches  are  to  go  out  in  their 
ministry,  not  only  by  their  thousands  of  priests  ordained  by  the  hand 
of  man,  but  more  effectively  by  their  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men 
and  women,  consecrated  by  the  spirit  of  God,  into  every  haunt  of 
wretched  life. 


PAINE.  57 

Repression  guided  by  love,  love  reinforced  by  repression,  must 
unite  to  deal  with  every  one  of  the  various  phases  of  the  pauper 
problem. 

Wisdom  too  must  stand  at  the  helm  as  pilot.  No  cause  for  fear 
when  among  the  leaders  of  the  social  reform  are  the  wise  and  strong 
men  who  are  at  the  head  of  the  great  universities  of  learning.  Pres- 
ident Daniel  C.  Oilman,  of  Johns  Hopkins,  Seth  Low,  of  Columbia, 
William  J.  Tucker,  of  Dartmouth,  Charles  W.  Eliot,  of  Harvard, 
John  H.  Finley,  of  Knox,  and  your  own  Frederick  Harper,  at 
Chicago  and  Francis  A.  Walker  of  the  Boston  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy  bring  to  any  cause  they  support  strength  and  wisdom.  Soci-j 
ology  takes  rank  in  the  colleges  as  a  worthy  study  for  men  who 
propose  to  rule  or  aid  their  fellowmen.  The  rise  of  this  study  has 
been  so  rapid  that  only  a  few  years  ago  it  was  introduced  at  Harvard 
as  a  half  course,  and  a  bit  later  the  printer's  devil  would  have  had 
Professor  Peabody  say  that  it  was  "  raised  from  a  half  curse  to  a 
whole  curse."  Now  no  college  is  equipped  without  a  competent 
professor  of  sociology.* 

Public  sentiment  in  th-e  community  must  also  be  aroused  to  take 
interest  in  all  judicious  movements,  for  instance,  to  support  overseers 
of  the  poor  in  enforcing  strict  rules  against  lax  relief,  police  in  pre- 
venting children  from  begging,  boards  of  health  in  preventing  "any 
portion  of  the  people  from  living  in  houses  which  are  unfit  for  human 
habitation." 

We  rejoice  to  count  as  sure  allies,  literature  and  the  power  of  the 
press.  If  "  Uncle  Tom  "  abolished  slavery,  so  has  the  "  Bitter  Cry  " 
been  heard  round  the  world  ;  "  Prisoners  of  Poverty  "  must  go  free ;  _ 
"All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men"  have  their  Palace  of  Industry. 
The  author's  pen  dipped  in  the  blood  of  those  who  suffer,  writes 
with  power. 

Nothing  is  more  wonderful  than  the  speed  of  modern  events,  the 
rapidity  with  which  an  avalanche  of  reform  overwhelms  all  opposition 
after  it  has  begun  to  move. 

This  International  Congress  of  Charities  meets  to-day  for  the  first 
time  on  the  soil  of  America.  It  is  honored  by  the  counsel  of  illustri- 
ous men  and  women  distinguished  for  philanthropic  devotion  Irom 
many  lands. 

*  It  was  my  hope  to  promote  this  study  at  Harvard  as  well  as  to  strengthen 
this  movement  by  the  aid  of  thoroughly  trained  experts,  by  founding  a  fellow- 
ship for  sociology. 


58  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM, 

What  result  laden  with  larger  measure  of  blessing  for  the  humbler 
ranks  of  men  can  issue  from  this  Congress,  than  a  deep  conviction 
upon  all  minds  that  the  great  preventible  causes  of  human  degrada- 
tion can  be  and  must  be  abolished  ? 


AMERICAN  ADMINISTRATION  OF  CHARITY  IN 
PUBLIC  INSTITUTIONS. 

OSCAR    CRAIG,    LATE    PRESIDENT    OF   STATE    BOARD    OF 
CHARITIES   OF   NEW   YORK. 

My  invitation  to  present  a  paper  on  topics  relating  to  "  The 
American  Poorhouse,  its  Past,  Present  and  Future,"  conveys  from 
the  secretary  of  the  section,  the  following  suggestions,  viz. : 

'•A  discussion  of  this  subject  would  probably  show,  as  well  as  that  of  any 
other,  the  character  of  our  public  relief  system,  for  the  poorhouse  may  fairly 
be  called,  I  presume,  the  corner-stone  of  this  system.  The  committee  would 
suggest  that  perhaps  your  paper  might  show,  among  other  things,  the  growing 
specialization  of  relief,  and  so  might  properly  speak  of  the  provision  that  has 
been  made  on  the  part  of  the  state  and  municipalities,  for  classes  once  housed 
in  the  poorhouses  and  almshouses." 

It  will,  however,  within  the  allotted  compass,  be  impossible  to 
take  in  the  points  thus  indicated  in  the  circumference  of  each  of  the 
forty-four  states.  Selection  is  therefore  made,  not  by  eliminating 
any  of  the  sections  indicated,  but  by  confining  their  consideration 
mainly  to  one  of  these  nearly  half-hundred  circles  of  statehood. 
For,  while  each  is  a  sovereignty  in  respect  of  the  subjects  here 
considered,  all  are  akin  in  language,  literature  and  institutions. 
The  Empire  State  excelling  in  population  and  wealth,  and  not 
surpassed  in  moral  enterprise  and  intelligence,  is  therefore  chosen 
as  the  proper  theatre  for  treatment  of  the  themes  presented  by  the 
secretary. 

In  passing  to  our  topics  we  note  by  the  way  that  general  descrip- 
tions of  the  poorhouse  systems  and  the  poor  laws  of  various  states 
may  be  found  in  the  published  proceedings  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities  and  Correction,  at  its  annual  sessions,  including 


CRAIG.  59 

reports  from  states  and  also    articles    by  specialists,  among  which 
particular  mention  is  made  of  the  paper  given  at  the  eleventh  session 
by  Mr.  Frank  B.  Sanborn,  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  Management  of 
Almshouses  in  New  England. 

The  political  unit  in  New  York  being  the  county,  unlike  that  in 
Massachusetts,  which  is  the  town,  the  administration  of  its  poorhouse 
system  is  vested  by  the  Revised  Statutes  (p.  620,  §24)  in  the  county, 
and  the  existence  of  town  poorhouses  is  by  sufferance  of  the  county. 
The  second  annual  report  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  in  the  year 
1869,  refers  to  out-relief  as  the  chief  form  of  dispensation  to  the  indi- 
gent in  Hamilton  and  Schuyler  counties,  and  to  several  town  poor- 
houses  in  Suffolk  and  Queens  counties  on  Long  Island.  There 
are  now  four  town  poorhouses,  two  in  Schuyler  county  and  two  in 
Queens  county,  and  there  is  no  county  house  in  either  Hamilton  or 
Schuyler  county. 

Including  the  almshouse  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York, 
with  its  various  departments,  and  the  almshouse  of  the  county  of 
Kings,  which  embraces  the  city  of  Brooklyn,  there  are  now  fifty- 
eight  county  poorhouses,  besides  five  city  almshouses  proper,  situate 
respectively  at  Kingston,  Newburgh,  Oswego,  Poughkeepsie  and 
Utica.  In  the  larger  towns  of  Buffalo,  Rochester,  Albany,  Troy 
and  Syracuse  the  city  poor  are  cared  for  in  the  poorhouses  of  their 
respective  counties.  On  these  and  related  points  there  have  been 
few  changes  during  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

But  the  quarter-century  presents  remarkable  variances  from 
beginning  to  end  in  many  respects.  The  average  population  of  the 
county  houses  has  increased  from  7,760  to  20,918;  and  their  total 
census  in  the  first  year,  21,529,  was,  in  the  last  j'ear,  raised  to 
83,667.  The  ratio  is  more  nearly  in  geometrical  than  in  arithmetical 
progression,  and  is  out  of  all  correspondence  with  the  growth  of 
population  in  the  state,  which,  by  the  federal  census  of  1870,  was 
4,382,759,  by  the  federal  census  of  1890  was  5,981,834,  and  by  the 
state  enumeration  of  1892  was  6,513,343.  Thus  while  the  period 
shows  that  the  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  state  increased 
about  fifty  per  cent.,  it  discovers  an  increase  in  the  average  number 
of  inmates  of  these  county  houses  almost  three  hundred  per  cent., 
and  in  their  total  number  annually  received  nearly  four  hundred 
per  cent.  In  brief,  the  dependents  domiciled  in  the  poorhouses 
multiplied  six  to  eight  times  faster  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  state. 

Though  relief  outside  of  institutions  comes  within  the  scope  of  this 


6o  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

paper  only  in  its  relation  to  indoor  relief,  it  is,  for  such  relativity  of 
knowledge,  proper  to  observe  that  the  number  receiving  out-relief 
at  the  beginning  of  the  quarter-century  was  50,983,  and  at  the  end 
was  131,439,  showing  increase  at  less  rapid  rate  than  indoor  relief. 
It  is  the  tendency  of  counties  and  cities  to  lessen  the  public  adminis- 
tration of  out-relief,  and  to  favor  the  substitution  of  its  private  dis- 
pensation, and  to  refer  its  problems  to  charity  organizations  and  other 
voluntary  instrumentalities.  This  trend  is  in  accordance  with  the 
views  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  which  regards  governmental 
agency  in  out-relief  as  open  to  the  objections  against  municipal  poli- 
tics in  charity  administration,  the  influence  of  which  is  apt  to  be  in 
the  promotion  rather  than  the  prevention  of  pauperism,  together  with 
the  neglect  of  the  modest  and  honest  poor,  whose  votes  are  not 
purchasable,  and  whose  wants  and  griefs  are  not  paraded  in  the 
market-places. 

It  is  of  practical  as  well  as  curious  interest  to  note  that  the  ratio 
between  native  and  foreign  born  paupers,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  era,  was  about  three  of  natives  to  six  of  foreigners ;  while  at  the 
end  it  is  about  three  of  natives  to  five  of  foreigners.  This  decrease 
in  the  proportion  of  alien  paupers,  though  apparently  small  in  effect, 
is  relatively  of  large  moment  in  comparison  with  the  increase  during 
the  same  period  in  volume  of  immigration,  including  defective,  degen- 
erate, delinquent  and  otherwise  dangerous  and  dependent  classes. 

These  considerations  lead  to  inquiries  respecting  the  evils  of  illicit 
immigration,  and  the  remedies  which  have  mitigated  if  they  have 
not  completely  corrected  them. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  municipal  governments,  charitable 
societies,  families  and  individuals,  in  Great  Britain  and  various  coun- 
tries in  Europe,  have  promoted  the  emigration  of  criminals,  lunatics, 
outcasts  and  paupers,  directed  or  destined  to  the  United  States, 
principally  through  the  port  of  New  York.  The  late  Martin  B. 
Anderson,  LL.  D.,  president  of  the  Rochester  University  and  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  for  the  Seventh  Judicial  District, 
submitted  to  the  board  a  paper,  dated  January  12,  1875,  which  cites 
admissions  made  by  publicists  and  other  authorities  abroad,  showing 
this  fact.  And  it  has  been  confirm.ed  by  proofs  annually  gathered 
since  the  year  1873  by  the  observations  and  examinations  of 
Dr.  Charles  S.  Hoyt,  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  and 
by  the  correspondence  of  Hon.  John  H.  Van  Antwerp,  its  vice-presi- 
dent, and"  by  the  findings  of  the  board  made  in  its  annual  reports  to 
the  Legislature. 


CRAIG.  6 1 

The  state  of  New  York  has  sought  relief  in  various  enactments. 
Chapter  277  of  the  laws  of  1831,  and  chapter  230  of  the  laws  of  1833, 
were  practically  inoperative,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  proving 
the  intent  or  knowledge  of  the  master  of  the  vessel  or  other  person 
introducing  the  convict  or  the  pauper  into  the  state.    The  act  passed 
May  15,  1847,  entitled  "An  act  concerning  passengers  in  vessels 
coming  to  the  United  States,"  and  the  amendatory  and  supplementary 
acts  created  commissioners  oi  emigration,  and  among  other  things 
made  the  consignees,  masters,  agents  and  owners  of  vessels  liable  for 
the  support  of  immigrants  who  were  "  lunatic,  idiot,  deaf,  dumb,  blind, 
infirm,  maimed,  over  sixty  years  old,  widows  having  families,  or  for 
any  cause  unable  to  support  themselves,"  provided  that  such  liability 
might  be  discharged  by  paying  a  commutation  tax  of  two  dollars  and 
fifty  cents  jz!>i?r  capita  on  all  immigrants,  within  twenty-four  hours  after 
leaving  the  vessel.    The  result,  of  course,  was  that  the  commutation 
money  was  always  assessed  on  the  emigrant  at  his  place  of  departure. 
The  law  directed  the  commissioners  to  pay  from  such  money  the  cost 
of  maintaining  such  immigrants  as  became  a  public  charge  within 
the  state,  but  not  beyond  a  period  of  five  years  from  landing.     This' 
statutory  indemnity  was  inadequate,  on  account  of  the  short  term  of 
maintenance  and  of  the  small  sum  of  "  head  money  ";  by  reason  of 
which  the  commissioners,  though  restricted  by  the  five  years' clause, 
incurred  debts  which  their  resources  would  not  cancel.    While  about 
nine  thousand  foreigners  were  thus  maintained  from  such  commuta- 
tion money  between  the  years  1868  and   1873  inclusive — a  period 
just  prior  to  the  first  subsequent  legislation  hereafter  mentioned — 
there  were  foreign-born  inmates  of  county  poorhouses  and  city  alms- 
houses in  the  state  during  the  same  six  years  to  an  annual  average 
of  thirty-five  thousand  to  forty  thousand,  being  about  two-thirds  of 
the  tofal  population  of   these  houses,  though  foreign-born  persons 
were  only  about  one-third  of  the  total  census  of  the  state.     Another 
inevitable  limitation  in  the  law  was  that  it  could  cover  only  the  ports 
of  entry  within  its  jurisdiction,  while  the  classes  of  defective  and 
dependent  persons  provided  against  were  in  large  numbers  shipped 
to  Canadian  ports,  and  thence  forwarded  over  the  border,  with  their 
destinations  practically  fixed,  as  if  ticketed,  to  the  poorhouses  and 
almshouses  of  the  counties  and  cities  of  the  state. 

This  statute  provoked  comments  from  jurists  on  the  question  of  its 
validity.  Finally,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
case  of  Henderson  ct  al.  v.  Mayor  of  New  York  et  al.,  decided  in 


62  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

October,  1875,*  declared  that  the  provisions  in  the  law  for  levying 
the  tax  on  immigrants,  and  the  penalties  leading  to  it,  were  in  regu- 
lation of  commerce,  and  therefore  in  violation  of  the  federal  con- 
stitution. 

After  this  decision,  cutting  off  the  inflow  of  the  "head  money," 
the  unnaturalized  paupers,  who  had  floated  on  the  currents  of  immi- 
gration and  had. become  moored  by  our  charity  cables  and  the  five 
years'  clause,  were  supported  by  the  commissioner  of  emigration  on 
Ward's  Island,  from  appropriations  by  the  legislature  of  the  state,  in 
the  years  1876  to  1883,  amounting  to  $1,140,500 ;  and  on  credit  in 
county  poorhouses,  city  almshouses,  incorporated  hospitals,  orphan 
asylums  and  other  charitable  institutions,  in  the  further  amount  of 
$105,008.96,  which  is  a  debt  against  the  state  to  be  paid  from  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  sale  of  its  property  on  Ward's  Island  ;  and  also  from  a 
loan  of  $200,000  made  in  1875  by  the  Emigrants'  Industrial  Savings 
Bank  of  New  York,  secured  by  a  mortgage  on  the  Ward's  Island 
property,  which  mortgage  was,  in  1882,  assigned  to  the  comptroller 
of  the  state  as  an  investment  for  the  United  States  Deposit  Fund, 
thus  making  the  funny  combination  of  a  mortgage  held  by  the  state 
on  its  own  property  and  as  security  for  trust-funds. 

But  these  various  sums  represent  only  a  small  part  of  the  deficiency 
of  the  "  head  moneys,"  as  already  shown  by  reference  to  the  ordi- 
nary statistics  of  alien  pauperism,  which  was  a  public  charge  not  on 
the  state  at  large,  but  on  counties  and  cities.  The  proofs  demon- 
strate that  the  Supreme  Court,  in  cutting  ofi'  the  commutation  con- 
tracts, released  the  people  of  New  York  state  from  a  most  destructive 
and  deplorable  policy  of  inviting  foreign  convicts,  lunatics  and 
paupers  to  come  under  an  implied  covenant  of  maintenance  for  five 
years  and  probably  for  life. 

At  the  time  of  this  decision  (1875)  there  was  no  national  statute  on 
the  subject.  Subsequently  federal  legislation  was  repeatedly  invoked 
by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  of  New  York,  in  correspondence  with 
the  State  Department  and  senators  and  representatives  at  Washing- 
ton, and  with  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  and 
the  boards  and  authorities  of  other  states.  The  result  of  the  agita- 
tion was  the  act  of  Congress  to  regulate  immigration,  passed  in  1882, 
by  which  it  was  provided,  among  other  things,  that  if  there  shall  be 
found  among  emigrants  on  vessels,  "any  convict,  lunatic,  idiot,  or 
any  person  unable  to  take  care  of  himself  or  herself  without  becom- 

*92  U.  S.  Reports,  259. 


CRAIG.  63 

ing  a  public  charge,  .  .  .  such  person  shall  not  be  permitted  to 
land."  This  law  was,  in  pursuance  of  its  provisions,  at  first  executed 
by  state  authorities,  but  subsequently  by  virtue  of  further  enactments 
was  enforced  by  federal  officers,  under  regulations  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  Assuming,  for  argument's 
sake,  that  its  administration  has  been  reasonably  diligent,  the  fact 
remains  that  great  numbers  of  alien  paupers  have  annually  eluded 
the  federal  examinations  and  obtained  a  footing  on  our  shores, 
perhaps  the  majority  of  whom  infest  the  city  and  the  state  of  New 
York. 

The  legislature  of  the  state  has  provided  for  the  return  of  such 
foreign  and  unnaturalized  paupers  as  are  assisted  by  cities,  charitable 
societies  and  other  agencies  to  emigrate,  after  the  expiration  of  one 
year  from  their  immigration  (which  is  the  period  limiting  such  action 
by  officers  under  the  federal  statute).  Under  the  alien  pauper  law  of 
New  York,  enacted  in  1880,  and  enforced  by  the  chief  secretary  of 
its  State  Board  of  Charities,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine  of 
these  assisted  immigrants,  most  of  them  being  remnants  of  the 
imperfect  execution  of  the  law  of  Congress,  have  been  sent  to  their 
homes  or  places  of  settlement,  by  through  tickets  to  those  places  in 
foreign  countries.  Such  returns  have  been  accomplished  in  humane 
ways,  at  an  expense  of  less  than  twenty-one  dollars  pe7-  capita,  or 
about  one-fifth  of  the  cost  of  maintenance  for  one  year,  computed  at 
two  dollars  per  week,  and  about  one  seventy-fifth  of  their  support 
for  life,  on  an  estimate  of  expectation  of  fifteen  years,  which  is  verified 
by  experience.  Thus  at  a  total  expenditure  of  $40,916.40,  the  expul- 
sion of  these  organized  invaders  of  the  soil  of  New  York  has  saved 
to  the  taxpayers  of  the  state  over  $2,890,000. 

These  general  statistics  are  taken  in  substance  from  the  annual 
reports  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  to  the  legislature  of  New 
York,  from  the  last  of  which  the  following  data  are  copied,  to  wit : 

"  During  the  fiscal  year  ending  September  30,  1S92,  the  Board  removed  150 
alien  paupers  from  the  poorhouses,  almshouses,  hospitals,  asylums  and  other 
charitable  institutions  of  this  state,  and  sent  them  to  their  homes  in  different 
countries  of  Europe,  pursuant  to  chapter  549  of  the  laws  of  1880,  as  follows  : 
To  England  i6;  to  Ireland  1 1  ;  to  Scotland  9;  to  Germany  34;  to  Austria- 
Hungary  14  ;  to  Kussia  1 1  ;  to  Italy  39;  to  Switzerland  8  ;  to  France  4,  and  to 
.Sweden  and  Denmark  each  2;  total  150. 

"The  examinations  showed  that  these  persons  were  deported  to  this  coun- 
try from  their  several  European  homes  by  the  following  agencies,  viz. :  By 
cities,  towns  and  other  municipalities,  13;  by  various  benevolent,  charitable 


64  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

and  immigration  associations  and  societies,  38;  by  relatives,  guardians  and 
friends,  77  ;  by  individuals  and  companies  under  agreement  to  labor,  22  ;  total, 
150. 

"According  to  the  statements  of  these  persons,  they  were  landed  in  this  coun- 
try as  follows:  In  New  York,  125;  at  other  United  States  ports,  17;  at 
various  Canadian  ports,  8  ;  total,  150. 

"  Their  condition  at  the  time  of  landing,  as  developed  by  the  examinations, 
was  as  follows  :  Lunatic,  9  ;  imbecile,  6  ;  epileptic,  3  ;  paralytic,  5  ;  vagrant  and 
diseased,  27  ;  old  and  decrepit,  22 ;  blind,  2 ;  crippled,  7  ;  deformed,  4  ;  feeble- 
minded, 26;  otherwise  diseased,  39;  total,  150." 

Preceding  the  alien  pauper  law  was  the  state  pauper  law,  enacted 
June  7,  1873,  and  amended  in  1874  and  1875,  which  is  still  in  full 
force  and  effect.  Under  its  provisions,  the  secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities  returns  to  their  homes  or  friends  in  other  states 
of  the  Union  and  other  countries,  state  paupers,  that  is  to  say, 
dependent  persons  having  no  legal  settlement  by  sixty  days'  resi- 
dence in  any  of  the  counties  of  the  state,  and  found  by  the  secretary 
in  the  state  almshouses,  which  are  certain  county  poorhouses 
selected  and  designated  by  the  state  board  as  receptacles  of  these 
classes. 

The  report  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  transmitted  to  the 
legislature  for  the  fiscal  year  1892,  shows  that  the  whole  number 
of  persons  committed  as  state  paupers  under  this  act  since  it  went 
into  effect,  October  22,  1873,  has  been  25,520,  viz:  males,  19,908; 
females,  5,612.  Of  these  15,980  have  been  furnished  transportation 
to  their  homes  or  places  of  legal  settlement  in  other  states  and  coun- 
tries, and  this  state  thus  released  of  the  burden  and  expense  of  their 
support  and  care  through  life.  To  have  maintained  these  paupers 
in  the  poorhouses  and  almshouses  of  the  state,  at  the  low  rate  of 
'  $100  each  per  annum,  would  have  involved  an  annual  outlay  of 
$1,507,100;  and,  calculating  the  average  duration  of  their  lives  at 
fifteen  years,  they  would,  in  the  end,  have  entailed  the  enormous 
expenditure  of  $24,928,800,  by  the  various  cities  and  counties  of  the 
state.  The  average  annual  expense  since  the  law  went  into  effect, 
for  maintenance,  supervision  and  care,  and  for  the  removal  of  15,980 
helpless  paupers  to  their  homes  or  places  of  legal  settlement,  has 
been  less  than  $40,000,  or  about  $25  per  person. 

Every  invasion  of  the  delinquent,  diseased  and  destitute  classes 
which  is  finally  turned  back  by  the  state  government,  if  not  at  first 
repelled  by  the  federal  authorities,  deters  unnumbered  irruptions  of 
similar  sorts ;    by  making  such  experiments  of  vagrant  mendicants 


CRAIG.  65 

through  interstate  migration  uncertain,  or  rather  rendering  it  almost 
certain  that  their  ventures  will  prove  unprofitable  and  unpleasant  to 
themselves ;  and  by  discouraging  benevolent  societies,  municipali- 
ties and  government  agencies  in  Europe,  from  their  bolder  attempts 
to  organize  such  immoral  incursions  into  our  territory.  Thus  the 
state  pauper  law  and  the  alien  pauper  law  have  not  only  immediately 
effected  an  actual  saving  of  over  $25,000,000  as  already  computed, 
but  on  a  fair  estimate  of  probabilities  have  resulted  in  sparing  the 
resources  of  the  state  the  useless  expenditure  of  still  larger  sums  of 
money. 

These  results  are  due  to  the  conservative  but  effective  execution 
of  these  laws  by  the  secretary  of  the  state  board,  Dr.  Charles  S. 
Hoyt,  whose  wise  exercise  of  discretion  has  prevented  occasion  for 
any  well-grounded  complaint  during  the  whole  period  of  his  admin- 
istration. 

The  residue  of  alien  and  other  unsettled  paupers  not  returned  to 
their  homes  are  maintained  by  the  state  in  certain  county  poorhouses 
selected  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  designated  State  Alms- 
houses. At  the  beginning  of  this  fiscal  year  there  were  thus  main- 
tained in  the  various  state  almshouses,  159;  at  the  several  state 
hospitals  for  the  insane  53,  and  at  an  orphan  asylum  i,  making 
altogether  213  state  paupers. 

Comparisons  with  other  states  show  that  this  special  work  in  New 
York  has  been  accompanied  with  similar  labors  and  results  in 
Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania  on  the  seaboard;  and,  as  to  inter- 
state migration,  in  other  commonwealths  of  the  Union ;  and  that 
regarding  state  almshouses,  the  West  has  generally  followed  not  the 
law  of  Massachusetts  for  their  separate  establishment,  but  the  law 
for  their  selection  from  county  houses  which  obtains  in  New  York. 

While  these  improved  methods  for  reducing  the  number  of  alien 
and  unsettled  paupers  have  been  followed,  improved  measures  have 
been  adopted  for  the  dispensation  of  indoor  relief  to  the  diseased, 
defective  and  dependent  inhabitants  of  the  state.  The  organization 
of  such  relief  has  been  developed  by  differentiating  the  beneficiaries, 
first,  on  lines  of  classification  under  the  poorhouse  roof;  and  second, 
on  lines  of  separation  and  segregation  in  institutions  respectively 
adapted  to  various  sorts  of  special  needs. 

The  classification  of  the  inmates  of  the  poorhouses  has  not  been 
carried  far  beyond  the  distinction  of  sex.  But  this  distinction  has 
come  to  be  well  observed  in  most  of  the  poorhouses  and  almshouses, 


66  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

both  day  and  night.  The  contrast  in  this  respect  between  the 
present  time  and  the  beginning  of  the  quarter-century  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities  is  marked. 

The  second  report  of  the  state  board  represents  the  conditions  at 
the  beginning  of  the  quarter-century,  from  which  the  following  is  an 
excerpt : 

"  But  few  of  the  poorhouses  of  the  state,  owing  to  their  arrangement,  admit 
of  a  proper  classification  of  their  inmates.  The  authorities,  in  most  of  them, 
aim  to  keep  the  sexes  separated  at  night,  but  this  is  only  partially  accom- 
plished. During  the  day  there  is  an  indiscriminate  and  unrestricted  associa- 
tion of  all  classes,  including  the  aged  and  respectable,  children,  insane,  idiotic 
and  blind;  together  with  the  middle-aged,  able-bodied,  slothful,  debased  and 
profane  of  both  sexes.  In  most  cases  they  partake  of  a  common  fare  at  a 
common  table,  and  not  infrequently  share  with  one  another  a  common  dormi- 
tory. The  effects  of  such  an  association  can  be  better  conceived  than 
described.  Its  fruits  will  be  reaped  in  a  large  increase  of  pauperism  and 
crime,  coupled  with  grievous  and  burdensome  taxation.  During  the  year  304 
children  were  born  in  these  establishments,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  were 
illegitimate;  and  799  of  their  inmates  absconded,  many  of  them  to  become, 
quite  probably,  a  public  charge,  as  vagrants  or  criminals." 

Other  features  of  this  picture  of  1868  are  as  follows: 

"An  examination  of  the  foregoing  table  shows  that,  at  the  time  of  visitation 
of  the  several  poorhouses  of  the  state,  there  were  found  present  7,019  per- 
sons of  all  classes.  Included  among  the  number  were  1,222  children  under 
sixteen  years  of  age;  1,528  insane;  314  idiotic;  87  blind,  and  44  deaf  and 
dumb;  all  others,  3,825.  Full  one-fourth  of  the  latter  were  middle-aged,  and 
apparently  without  infirmity  or  disease.  There  were  also  a  considerable 
number  of  sick  and  crippled,  many  of  whom,  it  was  stated  by  those  in  charge, 
had  been  inmates  for  a  long  time.  A  few  were  observed  presenting  appear- 
ances of  intelligence  and  respectability,  but  these  were  mainly  among  the  aged 
and  children. 

"  Nearly  all  the  poorhouses  throughout  the  state  are  old,  and  most  of  them 
are  out  of  repair.  With  but  few  exceptions  they  are  badly  constructed,  ill 
arranged,  and  are  without  proper  ventilation  or  suitable  appliances  for  bathing. 
In  a  large  proportion  of  them  the  rooms  are  small  and  the  ceilings  low.  At 
the  time  of  inspection,  in  many  of  them  the  air  was  hot,  foul  and  oppressive, 
and  to  the  casual  visitor  hardly  endurable.  The  rooms  are  often  crowded, 
especially  in  winter,  and  much  of  the  sickness  and  wretchedness  of  their 
inmates  doubtless  results  therefrom. 

"  In  the  absence  of  proper  hospital  accommodation,  the  sick  in  most  of  the 
poorhouses  are  treated  and  cared  for  in  the  ordinary  rooms  associated  with 
others  ;  and  in  several  instances,  owing  to  the  lack  of  suitable  buildings  for 
the  isolation  and  treatment  of  contagious  diseases,  the  infection  has  spread 


CRAIG.  67 

among  all  the  inmates,  resulting  in  great  mortality.  During  the  past  year  841 
deaths  occurred  in  these  institutions,  in  an  average  population  of  a  little  over 
7,ooo  persons.  Such  a  large  ratio  of  mortality  would  seem  to  indicate 
inexcusable  negligence  of  the  sick,  and  it  should  attract  public  attention  and 
the  attention  of  the  authorities  responsible  for  their  treatment  and  care.     .  ,  . 

"  In  nearly  all  of  the  counties  of  the  state  the  authorities  have  provided 
separate  buildings  for  the  insane.  These  are  generally  small  and  ill  arranged, 
and,  with  but  few  exceptions,  wholly  unsuited  for  the  purposes  to  which  they 
are  applied.  None  of  them  are  constructed  so  as  to  admit  classification  of 
the  insane,  with  reference  to  the  various  forms  and  stages  of  the  disease — the 
acute  and  chronic,  the  maniacal  and  quiet  occupying  the  same  floor,  and  not 
unfrequently  share  with  one  another  the  same  cell.  The  sexes  generally 
are  kept  separated  at  night,  but  in  most  cases  they  hold  unrestricted  inter- 
course during  the  day,  nor  are  the  insane  protected  from  the  intrusions  of  the 
ordinary  paupers.  Instances  frequently  occur  where  insane  women  become 
mothers  in  the  poorhouses,  and  two  such  cases  have  fallen  under  observation, 
at  the  time  of  inspection,  during  the  present  year. 

"  But  few  of  the  county  institutions  contain  the  appliances  necessary  for  the 
treatment  of  the  insane,  yet  recent  cases  are  being  constantly  received  and 
held  in  these  institutions,  without  effort  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  to 
secure  them  admission  to  the  state  asylum.  Several  such  cases  were  found  at 
the  time  of  inspection.  When  excited  they  are  locked  up  in  cells  or  chained  ; 
when  quiet  they  are  allowed  their  liberty,  and  escapes  often  occur.  Two 
hundred  and  thirteen  were  found  thus  restrained  at  the  time  of  inspection, 
many  of  whom,  it  was  represented,  had  been  confined  for  years,  and  several  of 
them  were  nearly,  and  two  entirely  nude.     ... 

"The  condition  of  the  insane,  idiotic,  blind  and  others,  unavoidably  com- 
pelled to  accept  a  home  in  the  county  poorhouses,  is  truly  deplorable,  allusions 
to  which  will  be  fully  made  in  the  detailed  accounts  of  the  inspection  of  these 
institutions  in  the  after  pages  of  this  report.  The  poorhouses  of  the  state, 
to  a  considerable  extent,  have  become  the  abodes  of  the  vagrant  and  idle,  and 
if  by  chance  respectable  citizens,  in  consequence  of  poverty,  infirmity,  disease 
or  misfortune  of  any  kind,  are  compelled  to  accept  a  home  in  them,  they 
necessarily  become  their  associates.  Vice  and  poverty  assemble  under  the 
same  roof,  and  this  association  in  a  great  measure  defeats  the  objects  for 
which  the  institutions  were  established.  The  citizens  generally  manifest  but 
little  interest  in  their  condition,  and  really  know  but  little  of  their  true 
character.  They  are  usually  visited  annually  by  the  board  of  supervisors  ; 
but  are  seldom  inspected,  except  upon  the  occasion  of  such  visits." 

But  over  these  chaotic  conditions  there  hovered  the  brooding  spirit 
of  humanity,  evoking  order  and  reforms  and  remedies  for  ahiiost  all 
the  evils  here  depicted.  The  exception  is  in  the  failure  properly  to 
classify  the  inmates  under  the  poorhouse  roof,  save  as  has  been 
already  stated  on  the  distinguishing  line  of  sex,  where  classification 
is  now  well  observed  and  maintained  as  a  rule  ;  and  save  also  on  the 


68  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

line  of  plain  demarcation  between  the  merely  infirm,  who  at  present 
comprise  the  great  majority  of  inmates,  and  the  very  sick,  who  now 
are  usually  cared  for  in  hospital  buildings  or  rooms  set  apart.  With 
these  two  saving  clauses  there  is  no  proper  classification. 

The  separation  of  the  sexes,  which  has  been  effected  in  the  county 
houses,  will,  it  is  believed,  be  followed  by  better  classification  of  the 
inmates.  The  obstacles  now  in  the  way  are  not  so  frequently  the 
results  of  mal-administralion  as  they  are  the  necessary  effects  of  bad 
construction  of  old  buildings.  But  all  obstructions  must  give  way 
to  the  obligation  of  respecting  the  worthy  poor,  who  have  become 
dependent  through  losses  of  friends  or  health  or  property,  and  of 
separating  them  from  vagrant  or  vicious  paupers.  Such  classifica- 
tion for  indoor  relief,  with  private  charity  properly  organized  outside, 
will  remove  the  last  excuse  for  the  public  dispensation  of  out-relief 
The  consummation  will  afford  another  illustration  of  the  harmony 
between  humanity  as  a  social  and  political  duty  and  public  policy. 

This  imperfect  distribution  and  administration  by  classes  is,  in 
large  measure,  due  to  defective  construction  of  buildings.  To  secure 
relief,  much  attention  has  been  given  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
to  "  poorhouse  construction,"  chiefly  through  Mr.  Letchworth,  one 
of  its  members,  whose  paper  on  this  subject,  appended  to  the  report 
of  the  board  to  the  Legislature  in  1879,  and  his  subsequent  article 
read  before  the  state  convention  of  county  superintendents  in  1891, 
are  authorities.  Among  the  exhibits  furnished  by  the  state  board, 
and  now  in  the  Columbian  Exposition,  is  the  model  of  a  poorhouse 
in  a  rural  county. 

But  while  complete  classification  within  the  walls  of  the  poorhouse 
for  the  protection  of  the  cleanly  against  the  filthy,  of  the  morally 
clean  against  the  defiled  and  the  corrupting,  and  of  the  refined 
against  the  vulgar  and  the  brutal,  has  not  been  secured  ;  the  segre- 
gation in  separate  institutions  of  the  blind,  the  deaf,  the  insane  and 
the  feeble-minded,  as  well  as  of  children,  has  progressed  to  present 
certainty  and  promised  completeness  of  development.  The  domi- 
ciling of  these  classes  in  their  respective  schools,  hospitals  and 
asylums  clearly  indicates  the  humanitarian  spirit  of  the  last  quarter- 
century. 

It  was  even  earlier  that  asylums  or  schools  for  the  blind  and  the 
deaf  were  inaugurated. 


CRAIG.  69 

By  chapter  325,  of  laws  of  1863,  as  amended  by  chapter  180  of 
laws  of  1870,  chapter  548  of  laws  of  1871,  and  chapter  213  of  laws 
of  1875,  deaf  children  of  indigent  parents  are  provided  for  as  follows : 

"§i.  Whenever  a  deaf-mute  child,  under  the  age  of  twelve  years,  shall 
become  a  charge  for  its  maintenance  on  any  of  the  towns  or  counties  of  this 
state,  or  shall  be  liable  to  become  such  charge,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
overseers  of  the  poor  of  the  town,  or  of  the  supervisors  of  such  county,  to 
place  such  child  in  the  New  York  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  or  in 
the  Institution  for  the  Improved  Instruction  of  Deaf-Mutes,  or  in  the  Le  Cou- 
teulx  St,  Mary's  Institution  for  the  Improved  Instruction  of  Deaf-Mutes,  in 
the  city  of  Buffalo,  or  in  the  Central  New  York  Institution  for  Deaf-Mutes,  in 
the  city  of  Rome,  or  in  any  institution  of  the  state  for  the  education  of  deaf- 
mutes. 

"  §2.  Any  parent,  guardian  or  friend  of  a  deaf-mute  child  within  this  state, 
over  the  age  of  six  years  and  under  the  age  of  twelve  years,  may  make  appli- 
cation to  the  overseers  of  the  poor  of  any  town,  or  to  any  supervisor  of  the 
county  where  said  child  may  be,  showing  by  satisfactory  affidavit,  or  other 
proof,  that  the  health,  morals  or  comfort  of  such  child  may  be  endangered 
or  not  properly  cared  for,  and  thereupon  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  overseer 
or  supervisor  to  place  such  child  in  the  New  York  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb,  or  in  the  Institution  for  the  Improved  Instruction  of  Deaf-Mutes,  in  the 
city  of  Buffalo,  or  in  the  Central  New  York  Institution  for  Deaf-Mutes,  in  the 
city  of  Rome,  or  in  any  institution  in  the  state  for  the  education  of  deaf-mutes. 

"  §3.  The  children  placed  in  said  institutions  in  pursuance  of  the  foregoing 
sections,  shall  be  maintained  therein  at  the  expense  of  the  county  from  whence 
they  came,  provided  that  such  expense  shall  not  exceed  three  hundred  dollars 
per  year,  until  they  attain  the  age  of  twelve  years,  unless  the  directors  of  the 
institution  to  which  a  child  has  been  sent  shall  find  that  such  child  is  not  a 
proper  subject  to  remain  in  said  institution." 

Besides  such  provisions  for  county  pupils,  there  are  provisions  for 
the  education,  care  and  maintenance  of  state  pupils  between  the  ages 
of  twelve  and  twenty -five  years,  being  deaf,  which  further  provisions 
are  incorporated  in  the  statutes  relating  to  public  instruction,  being 
laws  of  1886,  chapter  615,  §1,  and  laws  of  1875,  chapter  213. 

In  addition  to  the  institutions  named  in  the  foregoing  acts,  there 
have  been  several  new  ones  since  established  with  provisions  of  law 
bringing  them  within  the  same  terms  respecting  county  and  state 
pupils.  All  of  these  schools,  eight  in  number,  are  private  corpora- 
tions receiving  public  aid,  of  which  the  following  is  a  complete  list, 
with  census,  October  i,  1892,  to  wit : 


70  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

Males.  Females.  Total. 

New  York  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  New  York  208  88         296 
Institution  for  the  Improved  Instruction  of  Deaf-Mutes, 

New  York 97  93         19° 

Central  New  York  Institution  for  Deaf-Mutes,  Rome 66  67         133 

Le  Couteulx  St.  Mary's  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum,  Buffalo  70  60         130 
St.  Joseph's  Institution  for  the   Improved  Instruction  of 

Deaf-Mutes,  Fordham 141  158         299 

Western  New  York  Institution  for  Deaf-Mutes,  Rochester  87  56         153 

Northern  New  York  Institution  for  Deaf-Mutes,  Malone  .  51  33           84 

Albany  Home  School  for  the  Oral  Instruction  of  the  Deaf  7512 

Total 727       570       1297 

The  aggregate  number  of  pupils  in  these  schools  has  been  stationary 
during  the  last  decade. 

The  average  per  capita  cost  for  each  pupil,  for  the  last  fiscal  year, 
was  a  little  less  than  $300;  but  the  aggregate  cost  was  more  than 
the  public  appropriations. 

The  said  schools  being  close  corporations,  there  are,  in  the  proper 
sense,  no  state  institutions  for  the  deaf. 

Hon.  William  Rhinelander  Stewart  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
has  made  careful  inspections  and  examinations  of  the  methods 
obtaining  in  these  schools  during  past  years,  and  his  reports  have 
won  recognition  throughout  the  United  States. 

"An  act  to  authorize  the  establishment  of  the  New  York  State 
Institution  for  the  Blind,"  passed  April  27,  1865,  with  "An  act  to 
define  the  objects"  of  the  same,  passed  April  24,  1867,  has  resulted 
in  a  flourishing  school  for  the  blind  at  Batavia,  the  end  and  scope  of 
which  are  ordained  as  follows  : 

"§4.  The  primary  object  of  the  institution  shall  be,  to  furnish  to  the  blind 
children  of  the  state  the  best  known  facilities  for  acquiring  a  thorough  educa- 
tion, and  train  them  in  some  useful  profession  or  manual  art,  by  means  of 
which  they  may  be  enabled  to  contribute  to  their  own  support  after  leaving 
the  institution  ;  but  it  may  likewise,  through  its  industrial  department,  provide 
such  of  them  with  appropriate  employment  and  boarding  accommodations  as 
find  themselves  unable,  after  completing  their  course  of  instruction  and  train- 
ing, to  procure  these  elsewhere  for  themselves.  It  shall,  however,  be  in  no 
sense  an  asylum  for  those  who  are  helpless  from  age,  infirmity  or  otherwise, 
or  a  hospital  for  the  treatment  of  blindness." 

Besides  this  one  state  school  for  the  blind  there  is  a  private  insti- 
tution for  the  same  class,  incorporated  under  an  act  passed  April  21, 
1831,  which  was  continued  in  force  under  chapter  333  of  the  laws 


CRAIG.  71 

of  1852,  which  was  amended  by  chapter   166  of  the  laws  of  1870. 
Section  i  of  the  act  of  1870  is  as  follows  ; 

"  §1.  The  managers  of  the  New  York  Institution  for  the  Blind  are  hereby 
authorized  to  receive,  upon  the  appointment  of  the  superintendent  of  public 
instruction,  made  for  a  term  of  not  exceeding  five  years,  all  blind  persons, 
residents  of  the  counties  of  New  York  and  Kings,  between  eight  and  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  who,  in  the  judgment  of  the  board  of  managers  of  said  insti- 
tution, shall  be  of  suitable  character  and  capacity  for  instruction,  and  shall 
have  charge  of  their  maintenance,  education  and  support,  and  shall  receive 
compensation  therefor  from  the  state  in  the  same  manner  as  is  now  provided 
by  law.  The  term  of  such  appointments  may  be  extended,  from  time  to  time, 
by  the  superintendent  of  public  instruction,  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
board  of  managers  of  the  said  New  York  Institution  for  the  Blind,  for  such 
further  period  as  they  may  deem  advantageous  in  each  individual  case." 

The  census  and  the  cost  for  each  pupil  in  the  respective  schools 
for  the  blind,  the  State  Institution  at  Batavia,  and  the  corporate  body- 
in  New  York,  both  of  which  have  their  current  expenses  met  by  the 
state,  are  as  follows  : 

State  Institution.  Corporate  Institution. 

Average  population,  130         Average  population,  202 

Per  capita  cost  per  year,  $250.64         Per  capita  cost  per  year,  5286.52 

The  aggregate  number  in  public  schools  for  the  blind,  332,  con- 
trasts strongly  with  the  aggregate  number  in  public  schools  for  the 
deaf,  1,297.  But  during  the  same  period  there  were  in  the  alms- 
houses of  Kings  and  New  York  counties,  and  in  city  almshouses, 
212  blind  persons,  besides  67  in  the  Home  for  the  Blind,  New  York, 
making  a  total  of  705  blind  persons,  indigent  and  dependent  for 
maintenance  or  education,  upon  public  provision.  This  total  it  seems 
is  about  one-half  the  total  of  indigent  deaf  persons  similarly  depend- 
-ent.  The  tables  published  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  in  1891 
■show  that  in  the  county  poorhouses  and  city  almshouses  there  were 
for  the  preceding  fiscal  year,  299  blind  persons  and  54  deaf  persons. 

"An  act  to  establish  an  asylum  for  idiots,"  passed  July  10,  i85i,is 
the  first  enactment  for  such  a  state  institution  in  New  York.  Under 
acts  amendatory  and  supplementary  the  asylum  has  developed  into  a 
school  for  the  education  and  training  of  teachable  idiots.  Chapter 
220  of  the  laws  of  1862,  as  amended  in  1867  and  1878,  provides 
among  other  things  for  the  selection,  admission,  removal  and  support 
of  pupils  as  follows  : 

"  §20.  There  shall  be  received  and  supported  gratuitously  in  the  asylum 
one  hundred  and  twenty  pupils,  to  be  selected  in  equal  numbers,  as  near  as 


72  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

may  be,  from  each  judicial  district,  from  those  whose  parents  or  guardians  are 
unable  to  provide  for  their  support  therein,  to  be  designated  as  state  pupils; 
and  such  additional  number  of  idiots  as  can  be  conveniently  accommodated 
may  be  received  into  the  asylum  by  the  trustees, on  such  terms  as  maybe  just. 
But  no  idiot  shall  be  received  into  the  asylum  without  there  shall  have  been 
first  lodged  with  the  superintendent  thereof  a  request  to  that  effect,  under  the 
hand  of  the  person  by  whose  direction  he  is  sent,  stating  the  age  and  place  of 
nativity,  if  known,  of  the  idiot,  his  christian  and  surname,  the  town  and  city  or 
county  in  which  they  severally  reside;  the  ability  or  otherwise  of  the  idiot,  his 
parents  or  guardians,  to  provide  for  his  support  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  if  in 
part  only,  then  what  part ;  and  the  degree  of  relationship  or  other  circumstance 
of  connection  between  him  and  the  person  requesting  his  admission  ;  which 
statement  shall  be  verified  in  writing,  b^  the  oath  of  two  disinterested  persons, 
residents  of  the  same  county  with  the  idiot,  acquainted  with  the  facts  and 
circumstances  so  stated,  and  certified  to  be  credible  by  the  county  judge  of  the 
same  county.  And  no  idiot  shall  be  received  into  said  asylum  unless  the 
county  judge  of  the  county  liable  for  his  support,  shall  certify  that  such  idiot 
is  an  eligible  and  proper  candidate  for  admission  to  said  asylum  as  aforesaid; 
provided,  however,  that  idiots  may  be  received  into  said  asylum  upon  the 
application  therefor  signed  officially  by  any  county  superintendent  of  the  poor 
or  by  the  commissioners  of  charity  of  any  of  the  cities  of  this  state,  where  such 
commissioners  exist." 

An  offshoot,  under  the  patronage  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities, 
was  planted  at  Newark  for  the  "  enforced  custody  and  protection, 
during  the  child-bearing  age  of  feeble-minded  young  women  of  proper 
physical  development  to  become  mothers."  Chapter  281  of  the  laws 
of  1885  enacted,  among  other  things,  as  follows:  "The  asylum 
established  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  at  Newark,  Wayne 
county,  for  feeble-minded  women  is  hereby  continued  "  ;  and  pro- 
vided for  the  government  thereof  by  trustees  to  be  appointed  by  the 
Governor  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  senate. 

Besides  these  two  state  institutions  there  is  an  idiot  asylum  depart- 
ment in  the  almshouse  of  the  city  and  county  of  New  York,  which  is 
educational  as  well  as  custodial.  The  following  table  shows  the  pop- 
ulation of  idiots  and  feeble-minded  women  at  the  beginning  of  the 
last  fiscal  year  in  public  institutions  of  the  State  of  New  York,  to  wit : 

State  institution  at  Syracuse 510 

State  institution  at  Newark 345 

Idiot  asylum,  city  of  New  York 386 

Kings  county  almshouse 39 

Other  county  poorhouses 251 

City  almshouses 12 

Total 1,543. 


CRAIG.  73 

the  care  of  whom  is  educational  as  well  as  custodial  in  all  but  302 
cases. 

The  weekly  average  expenditure  per  capita  in  the  two  state  insti- 
tutions for  idiots  and  feebled-minded  women,  for  the  last  fiscal  year, 
was  as  follows:  in  the  institution  for  idiots,  $3.12 ;  in  the  institution 
for  feeble-minded  women,  $2.32. 

There  is  no  public  institution  in  the  state  of  New  York,  save  poor- 
houses  and  almshouses,  for  epileptics.  The  Legislature  of  1892 
passed  and  the  Governor  signed  a  bill  charging  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  which  is  an  unpaid  body,  with  the  duty  of  selecting  a  site 
and  obtaining  an  option  for  land,  not  less  than  one  thousand  acres, 
and  reporting  an  organization  for  an  epileptic  colony.  At  great 
expense  of  time  and  labor  the  State  Board  reported  to  the  legisla- 
ture of  1893  a  site  and  an  organization  for  such  a  colony,  which  both 
the  senate  and  the  assembly  passed  unanimously,  but  the  Governor 
vetoed  on  alleged  grounds  of  economy. 

There  are  now  in  the  poorhouses  of  the  state  about  five  hundred 
epileptics,  and  in  very  poor  families  many  more,  most  of  whom  are 
incumbrances  upon  the  productive  labor  of  the  people,  while  in  such 
a  colony  they  would  become  self-supporting  by  their  labor  expended 
for  their  physical  and  mental  benefit  under  medical  direction. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  quarter-century  there  was  the  New  York 
State  Lunatic  Asylum  at  Utica  for  the  acute  insane,  and  there  were 
in  process  of  construction  two  other  state  institutions,  viz :  the 
Hudson  River  State  Hospital  for  the  insane  at  Poughkeepsie,  which 
was  also  designed  for  acute  cases,  and  the  Willard  Asylum  for  the 
chronic  insane  on  Seneca  Lake.  The  Willard  Asylum  was  the  first 
state  provision  for  the  chronic  insane,  the  only  public  accommoda- 
tions for  whom,  by  previous  law,  had  been  the  poorhouses  and  alms- 
houses. The  statute  establishing  this  asylum  made  it  incumbent  on 
the  counties  to  be  designated  by  its  trustees  to  send  to  it  all  their 
pauper  and  indigent  insane  who  were  proper  subjects  of  public  care, 
and  not  proper  candidates  for  either  of  the  two  state  hospitals  ;  and 
in  pursuance  of  its  authority  the  trustees  of  the  asylum  designated  all 
the  counties  of  the  state  as  properly  under  its  supervision  except 
New  York,  Kings,  Monroe,  Albany  and  Jefferson.  Subsequently  it 
was  found  that  the  capacity  of  the  asylum  was  not  one-fourth  the 
demand  ;  and  a  new  statute  entrusted  to  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
power  to  exempt  counties  from  the  operation  of  the  Willard  Asylum 
act.     During  nineteen  years  this  board  exempted  nineteen  counties. 


74  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

acting  on  the  rule  of  the  choice  of  the  less  of  two  evils,  and  preferring 
the  exempted  county  asylum,  though  a  mere  department  of  the 
poorhouse  placed  under  license  and  regulation,  to  the  poorhouse 
unlicensed  and  unregulated.  At  length,  however,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1888  the  standing  committee  on  the  insane  appointed  by  the  State 
Board  reported  to  it  facts  concerning  these  exempted  asylums 
showing  great  evils  and  abuses,  and  conclusions,  from  which,  as  the 
writer  was  chairman  of  the  committee,  excerpts  are  made  as  follows, 
to  wit : 

"  Your  committee  are  united  in  the  conviction  that  a  revised  lunacy  code 
should  enact  one  of  two  alternatives,  viz  :  either,  first  to  abolish  county  care  ; 
or  second,  to  restrict  and  regulate  it.  .  .  .  Your  committee  are  of  the 
opinion  that  county  care  can  be  made  what  it  should  be,  if  at  all,  only  under 
some  such  system  as  will  take  it  entirely  out  of  political  control,  and  subject 
it  to  some  such  authority  as  that  now  committed  to  the  state  board,  with  the 
more  flexible  and  elastic  powers  to  be  conferred  by  some  new  provisions  as 
proposed.     .     . 

"  In  conclusion,  your  committee  cannot  refrain  from  referring  to  misappre- 
hensions and  misconceptions  which  sometimes  prevent  and  arrest  reforms  and 
remedies  in  lunacy  legislation  and  administration.  Some  of  these  mistakes, 
with  their  corrections,  may  be  stated  as  follows: 

"  I.  A  misapprehension  that  lunatics  and  voluntary  paupers  are  generally 
the  products  of  the  same  causes  operating  in  similar  ways  is  often  expressed, 
when,  in  fact,  the  contrary  is  the  case,  as  shown  by  the  opinions  of  alienists  as 
well  as  by  statistics. 

"2.  A  misconception  that  the  right  of  the  county,  as  the  unit  in  political 
organization,  is  to  dictate  the  treatment  and  care  of  its  indigent  insane,  is 
sometimes  represented  ;  while  on  the  contrary,  lunatics  are,  as  infants  are, 
but  as  paupers  are  not,  the  special  wards  of  the  Supreme  Court,  which  has 
control  over  their  persons  and  estates,  in  chancery  and  by  common  law,  as 
well  as  by  statute,  thus  exercising  a  special  jurisdiction,  which  is  not  of  the 
county,  but  of  the  entire  people  of  the  state. 

"  3.  A  misunderstanding  of  Darwin's  law  of  natural  selection,  or  of  Spencer's 
law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  provokes  criticism  of  attempted  reforms  in 
lunacy  matters,  as  designed  unnaturally  to  prolong  the  lives  of  the  useless 
and  wretched  ;  the  case  being  in  truth  that  such  endeavors  are  intended 
primarily  to  increase  the  cures  of  acute,  and  as  may  be  done,  even  cures 
among  chronic  classes,  and  to  render  the  incurables  more  useful  and  less 
wretched  ;  while  their  secondary  purpose  of  lengthening  the  existence  of  these 
unfortunates  is  also  required  by  these  very  laws  of  nature  acting  in  the  realms 
of  sociology  and  morality,  for  society  has  no  more  right  negatively  to  leave 
its  infirm  to  die  or  suffer  than  it  has  affirmatively  to  inflict  on  them  suffering 
or  death,  either  of  which  is  in  opposition  to  altruism,  the  last  outcome  of 
evolution,   and    in    violation  of    nature,   which    executing    the    divine    decree 


CRAIG.  75 

selects  those  civilized  peoples  as  the  fittest  to  survive  who  obey  among  them- 
selves the  Christian  law  of  kindness." 

These  conclusions,  among  others,  were  adopted  by  the  State 
Board  of  Charities  and  transmitted  with  its  annual  report  to  the 
legislature  in  1889. 

As  a  sequel,  the  bill  which  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association  of 
New  York  city  had  introduced  into  the  legislature  for  the  state  care 
of  the  insane,  having  been  argued  and  urged  by  representatives  of 
the  association  and  by  the  committee  of  the  state  board,  while 
opposed  by  the  superintendents  of  the  poor,  passed  the  senate  and 
nearly  passed  the  assembly  in  the  same  year.  Meanwhile,  a  bill  for 
the  creation  of  a  commission  in  lunacy,  superseding  the  old  commis- 
sioner in  lunacy,  was  drawn  by  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  a  distinguished 
medical  authority  of  New  York  city,  who  was  then  the  commis- 
sioner in  lunacy,  and  who  had  been  and  is  now  again  a  member  of 
the  State  Board  of  Charities.  This  bill  was  promoted  by  the 
committee  of  the  state  board,  and  was  enacted,  being  now  chapter 
283  of  the  laws  of  1889,  with  statutes  amendatory  and  supplementary. 
In  the  following  year  the  bill  for  exclusive  state  care  of  the  insane 
became  a  law,  being  chapter  126  of  the  laws  of  1890,  with  acts 
amendatory  and  supplementary. 

"The  New  York  Law  for  the  State  Care  of  the  Insane,"  is  the 
title  of  a  paper  prepared  by  the  writer  for  the  eighteenth  annual 
session  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  and 
published  in  its  proceedings  for  1891  (pp.  92—94),  from  which  extracts 
are  made  as  follows ; 

"The  new  system  makes  state  care  coterminous  with  public  care,  with  the 
exception  of  New  York,  Kings  and  Monroe  counties,  which  were  independent 
of  the  Willard  Asylum  act ;  but  with  the  option  in  each  of  these  three  excepted 
counties  to  come  under  the  law.  Monroe  county  has  already  elected  to  take 
its  benefits  and  bear  its  burdens. 

"The  new  statute  puts  the  state  institutions, including  the  four  hospitals  for 
the  acute  insane,  with  the  new  St.  Lawrence  hospital,  and  the  two  asylums 
for  the  chronic  insane,  upon  the  same  basis.  These  seven  institutions  are  now 
hospitals  for  all  the  dependent  insane.  This  feature  of  mixed  hospitals  or 
asylums  for  acute  cases  and  all  chronic  classes  of  the  insane  was  severely 
criticised  by  the  former  president  of  the  state  board,  Mr.  Letchworth,  than 
whom,  perhaps,  no  alienist  or  specialist  was  better  qualified  to  speak,  from 
study  and  travel  among  institutions  in  this  country  and  abroad.  His  opposi- 
tion to  this  part  of  the  new  system  did  not,  however,  lead  him  to  oppose  the 
system  as  a  whole.  His  noble  nature  overruled  his  special  objection,  for  the 
sake  of  the  general  movement  of  progress  towards  state  care.     .     .     . 


76  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

"There  is  no  actor  in  the  movement,  now  happily  consummated,  who  is 
authorized  to  give  a  compendium  of  all  the  grounds  on  which  all  the  movers 
were  actuated  in  urging  the  enactment  of  the  measure.  But  it  is  believed  that 
such  a  synopsis  would  include  the  following  summary  of  reasons,  namely  : 

"■First. — The  medical  supervision  of  the  state  hospital,  with  its  semi-daily 
inspection  of  all  its  patients  by  competent  and  trustworthy  physicians,  and  the 
absence  of  anything  like  it  in  the  average  county  poorhouse  or  asylum,  are 
reasons  enough  for  exclusive  state  care. 

"Second. — The  more  beautiful  environment  of  the  state  institution,  with  its 
adaptation  and  facilities  for  graduations  and  variations  and  successions  of 
scene  for  different  patients  or  phases  of  the  same  patient,  tending  to  excite 
more  healthy  correspondence  in  their  nervous  organisms,  and  playing  often 
the  chief  part  in  recovery,  is  sufficient  to  justify  our  contention  in  favor  of 
state  care. 

"  Third. — The  county  institution  with  four  wards,  being  two  for  each  sex,  has 
most  inadequate  means  for  classification,  in  that  seldom  will  the  cleanly  and 
quiet  cases  be  simply  equal  in  number  to  the  filthy  and  disturbed  classes,  so 
that  almost  always  will  such  wards,  which  the  casual  or  superficial  observer 
might  call  homelike  in  the  daytime,  become  in  the  night  season,  without  night 
service,  filled  with  disgusting  and  repulsive  horrors  for  the  better  class  of 
patients. 

"Fourth. — Inasmuch  as  one  hundred  patients  need  as  many  classifications  as 
do  one  thousand,  but  with  wards  containing  twenty-five  inmates  each,  the 
former  population  would  fill  only  four,  while  the  latter  population  would  fill 
forty  wards,  it  is  manifest  that  the  state  institution,  with  the  larger  census,  has 
the  advantage  over  the  county  institution,  with  the  smaller  census. 

"Fifth. — Moreover,  the  state  institution  alone  is  likely  to  have  the  means  for 
changes  of  classification  to  meet  the  demands  of  changes  of  cases,  and,  above 
all,  changes  in  the  same  case. 

"Sixth. — The  labor  of  the  state  patient  is  for  his  own  benefit  under  medical 
supervision,  while  the  labor  of  the  county  patient  is  for  his  own  support  with- 
out medical  supervision. 

"Seventh. — In  fine,  the  state  institution  always,  and  the  county  institution 
almost  never,  treats  its  patients  as  sick  persons,  as  in  fact  they  are,  whether 
suffering  from  acute  attacks  or  succumbing  as  chronic  invalids. 

"Eighth. — The  pauper  associations  of  county  care,  caused  by  putting  the 
indigent  insane  in  the  poorhouse,  or  in  a  building  adjoining  or  adjacent  or  on 
the  poorhouse  farm,  or  under  poorhouse  officials,  are  degrading  to  the  indigent 
or  dependent  insane,  who,  as  has  been  shown,  are  seldom  paupers. 

"Ninth. — Individual  care  is  practicable  to  a  greater  extent  in  a  state  institu- 
tion, though  larger,  because  its  medical  and  personal  treatment,  its  more 
extensive,  varied  and  inspiring  environment,  and  its  means  for  more  correct 
and  complete  classification,  differentiate  the  treatment  in  accordance  with  the 
differing  cases  and  the  changes  of  the  same  case. 

"Tenth. — Though  the  mixed  system  is  not  essential  to  exclusive  state  care, 
it  has  one  important  advantage  in  the  opportunity  which  it  gives  for  transfers 


CRAIG.  7^ 

back  and  forth  between  the  hospital  and  custodial  or  domiciliary  treatment 
and  care,  following  successive  changes  in  the  same  case  as  well  as  changes  of 
cases. 

"Eleventh. — While  constant  watch  and  ward  by  a  central  commission  or 
board  is  impossible,  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  provide  a  smaller  number  of 
larger  institutions  under  the  immediate  control  of  medical  superintendents  of 
high  honor,  in  order  that  the  continuing  influence  of  the  supervising  body  may 
be  kept  alive  in  the  intervals  between  its  visits  of  inspection.  Another  and  a 
similar  advantage  of  such  superior  institutions  is  that  they  may  be  held  to  a 
reasonable  standard  without  reducing  them  to  a  dead  level  of  uniformity,  but 
with  the  liberty  which,  within  proper  limits,  leads  to  the  differentiation  which 
is  the  law  of  development. 

*'  Twelfth. — Though  state  care  is  based  on  humanity,  and  not  on  economy,  it 
is,  as  has  been  shown,  no  less  economical,  while  it  is  more  humane. 

"  Thirteenth. — The  system  of  exclusive  state  care  is  more  practical  as  well 
as  philosophical  in  its  simplicity,  as  compared  with  the  former  exemption 
system  of  New  York,  or  the  present  Wisconsin  system,  which  introduces  state 
administration  to  correct  the  evils  of  county  administration,  and  which,  so  far 
as  it  insures  good  results,  is  in  reality  qualified  state  care,  encumbered  with 
useless  machinery  engendering  unnecessary  friction  and  producing  wasteful 
loss  of  power  as  evidenced  in  limited  results. 

"Fourteenth. — New  York's  new  law  is  a  development  from  the  first  principle 
of  state  care  in  the  Willard  Asylum  act ;  it  is  an  evolution  or  growth,  and  not  a 
special  contrivance  or  creation. 

"Fifteenth.  —  While  the  county  is  for  practical  purposes  the  political  unit,  it 
is  as  such  only  a  small  and  subordinate  part  of  the  whole,  which  is  the  state 
paramount  and  sovereign.  The  criminal  law  recognizes  this  principle  in 
determining  not  only  the  nature  and  penalty  of  felonies  and  other  offenses, 
but  their  place  as  well  as  mode  of  punishment.  Lunacy  legislation  even  more 
legitimately  proceeds  upon  the  same  basis  ;  for  its  subjects,  the  insane,  both 
by  statute  and  common  law,  and  in  respect  of  person  as  well  as  property,  are 
the  wards  of  the  state." 

The  board  for  establishing  the  hospital  districts  of  the  state,  com- 
posed of  the  commission  in  lunacy,  the  president  of  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  and  the  comptroller,  was  charged  by  the  statute  with  the 
duty  of  providing,  upon  the  grounds  of  existing  institutions,  cottages 
for  the  classes  of  the  insane  who  are  chronic  in  a  medical  sense,  the 
legal  definition  of  chronicity  by  the  term  of  two  years  having  been 
abolished.  The  state  institutions  are  now  all  hospitals  for  the  cure 
of  the  insane,  with  provisions  for  the  proper  care  of  such  as  may 
prove  to  be  incurable.  On  the  first  day  of  October  next,  all  the 
indigent  and  dependent  insane  except  those  of  New  York  and  Kings 
counties,  will  be  domiciled  in  these  hospitals,  the  new  cottages  of 
which,  including   the    necessary  equipments   for   heating,  lighting. 


78  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    I'AUPERISM. 

ventilation,  fixtures  and  furniture,  have  been  built  at  a  cost  not  exceed- 
ing $550  per  capita.  The  appropriation  of  last  winter  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  patients  in  these  state  institutions  is  less  per  capita 
than  the  former  cost  to  the  counties  of  the  state.  This  result  is  in 
part  due  to  the  contribution  of  New  York  and  Kings  counties  by 
taxation.  But  should  these  two  counties  share  in  the  benefits  as  well 
as  the  burdens  of  state  care,  it  is  believed  that  the  cost  would  be  less 
than  under  the  old  system,  taking  into  consideration  that  the  expen- 
ditures of  the  counties  cannot  be  taken  at  their  own  estimate,  for  the 
reason  that  but  one  of  the  counties  exempted  by  the  state  board 
kept  its  accounts  or  finances  for  the  insane  separate  from  those  for 
its  paupers,  while  Monroe  county,  which  had  an  independent  asylum 
created  by  statute,  gave  less  accommodations  at  greater  expense 
than  Willard  Asylum  for  the  Chronic  Insane. 

Statistics  compiled  by  the  state  board  from  returns  by  the  state 
hospitals  and  county  asylums  for  the  insane,  have  been  reported  by 
the  board  to  the  legislature  for  the  last  fiscal  year,  including  the 
following: 

"  The  daily  average  number  of  insane  in  the  various  state  hospitals  during 
the  year  ending  September  30,  1892,  was  7,173,  and  the  number  in  their  custody 
and  care,  October  i,  1892,  7,484.  The  average  number  in  these  institutions 
during  the  year  ending  September  30,  1891,  was  6,508,  and  the  number  in  their 
custody  and  care,  October  i,  1891,  was  6,961.  The  increase  in  the  daily  aver- 
age during  the  year  ending  September  30,  1892,  it  thus  appears,  was  665,  and 
the  increase  in  the  number  under  care,  October  i,  1892,  was  523.  .  .  .  The 
number  of  insane  in  the  several  slate  hospitals,  October  i,  1891,  was  6,961. 
The  admissions  during  the  year  ending  September  30,  1S92,  were  2,474,  making 
a  total  of  9,435  under  care  during  the  year,  as  against  8,777  the  preceding  year. 
The  following  changes  occurred  in  these  institutions  during  the  year,  viz.  : 
discharged  recovered,  561  ;  not  recovered,  362  ;  improved,  135;  unimproved, 
200;  not  insane,  21  ;  died,  672;  thus  leaving  7,484  under  care,  October  i,  1892, 
of  whom  3,653  were  men  and  3,831  women.  .  .  .  The  number  of  insane  in  the 
asylums  of  New  York  city,  October  i,  1892,  was  5,767,  as  against  5,390,  October 
I,  1891,  of  whom  2,638  were  men  and  3,129  were  women,  the  increase  for  the 
year  being  377,  as  against  343,  the  increase  the  preceding  year.  The  admis- 
sions during  the  year  1892  were  1,592,  as  against  1,401,  the  admissions  for  the 
year  1891,  an  increase  of  191  during  the  year.  The  discharges  in  the  course 
of  the  year  were  as  follows  :  cured,  166  ;  not  cured,  457  ;  not  insane,  3  ;  died, 
589,  thus  leaving  5,767  under  care,  October  i,  1892,  distributed  as  follows: 
on  Blackwell's  Island,  1,918  women;  on  Ward's  Island,  2,168  men  and  90 
women  ;  on  Hart's  Island,  78  men  and  1,081  women  ;  at  Central  Islip,  392men  and 
40  women.  .  .  .  The  number  of  insane  in  the  care  of  the  institutions  of  Kings 
county,  October  i,  1892,  was  2,120,  as  against  1,997,  October  i,  1891 .    The  whole 


CRAIG.  79 

number  under  treatment  during  the  year  was  2,496,  as  against  2,461  the  preced- 
ing year.  The  distribution  of  those  under  care,  October  i,  1892,  was  as  fol- 
lows: in  the  buildings  at  Flatbush,  518  men  and  881  women;  total,  1,399;  '" 
the  buildings  at  King's  Park,  376  men  and  345  women  ;  total,  721  ;  aggregate 
2,120,  of  whom  894  were  men  and  1,226  were  women. 

The  capacity  of  the  buildings  for  the  insane  of  this  county  is  for  1,680 
patients,  viz  :  at  Flatbush  for  1,000  patients  ;  at  King's  Park  for  680  patients. 
The  daily  average  number  of  patients  during  the  year  has  been  2,051,  or  an 
excess  of  371  patients  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  buildings,  and  the  excess, 
October  i,  1892,  was  440  patients,  the  greatest  crowding  being  at  Flatbush." 

Homes  for  the  friendless,  being  private  institutions  in  the  state  of 
New  York,  contain  2,403  men  and  5,633  women,  making  8,036  adult 
inmates. 

The  first  orphan  asylum  in  the  city  of  New  York  was  established 
in  1806. 

Numerous  acts,  notably  those  of  1855,  1857,  1869,  1870,  1875  and 
1878,  provided  for  the  support  and  care  of  poor  children,  until  they 
were  consolidated  in  chapter  438  of  the  laws  of  1884,  entitled  "An 
act  to  revise  and  consolidate  the  statutes  of  the  state  relating  to  the 
custody  and  care  of  indigent  and  pauper  children  by  orphan  asylums 
and  other  charitable  institutions."  Among  other  provisions  of  this 
law  are  the  following  : 

"§i.  The  guardianship  of  the  person  and  the  custody  of  any  indigent  child 
may  be  committed  to  any  incorporated  orphan  asylum,  or  any  institution  incorpo- 
rated for  the  care  of  orphan,  friendless  or  destitute  children,  by  an  instrument 
in  writing  signed  by  the  parents  of  such  child,  if  both  parents  shall  then  be 
living,  or  by  the  surviving  parent  if  either  parent  of  such  child  be  dead,  or  if 
either  one  of  such  parents  have,  for  the  period  of  six  months  then  next  preced- 
ing, abandoned  such  child,  by  the  other  such  parent,  or  if  the  father  of  such 
child  shall  have  neglected  to  provide  for  his  family  during  the  six  months 
then  next  preceding,  or  if  such  child  be  a  bastard,  by  the  mother  of  such  child  ; 
or  if  both  parents  of  such  child  shall  then  be  dead,  by  the  guardian  of  the 
person  of  such  child,  legally  appointed,  by  the  approval  of  the  court  or  officer 
which  appointed  such  guardian  to  be  entered  of  record  ;  or  if  both  parents  of 
such  child  shall  then  be  dead  and  no  legal  guardian  of  the  person  of  such 
child  shall  have  been  appointed  and  no  guardian  of  such  child  shall  have 
been  appointed  by  the  last  will  and  testament  or  by  a  deed  by  either  parent 
thereof,  or  if  the  parents  of  such  child  shall  have  abandoned  such  child  for  the 
period  of  six  months  then  next  preceding,  by  the  mayor  of  the  city  or  by  the 
county  judge  of  the  county  in  which  such  asylum  or  other  institution  shall  be 
located,  upon  such  terms,  for  such  time,  and  subject  to  such  conditions,  as  may 
be  agreed  upon  by  the  parties  to  such  written  instrument.  And  such  written 
instrument  may  provide  for  the  absolute  surrender  of  such  child  to  such  corpo- 


So  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

ration.  Hut  no  such  corporation  shall  draw  or  receive  money  from  public 
funds  for  the  support  of  any  such  child  committed  under  the  provisions  of  this 
section,  unless  it  shall  have  been  determined  by  a  court  of  competent  jurisdic- 
tion that  such  child  has  no  relatives,  parent  or  guardian  living,  or  that  such 
relative,  parent  or  guardian,  if  living,  is  destitute,  and  actually  unable  to  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  such  child. 

"  §2.  It  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  county  superintendent  or  overseer  of  the 
poor,  board  of  charity  or  other  officer,  to  send  any  child  between  the  ages  of 
two  and  sixteen  years,  as  a  pauper,  to  any  county  poorhouse  or  almshouse  for 
support  and  care,  or  to  detain  any  child  between  the  ages  of  two  and  sixteen  years 
in  such  poorhouse  or  almshouse  ;  but  such  county  superintendents,  overseers 
of  the  poor,  boards  of  charities  or  other  officers  shall  provide  for  such  child  or 
children,  in  families,  orphan  asylums,  hospitals  or  other  appropriate  institu- 
tions, as  provided  by  law.  The  boards  of  supervisors  of  the  several  counties 
of  the  state  are  hereby  directed  to  take  such  action  in  the  matter  as  may  be 
necessary  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this  section.  When  any  such  child 
shall  be  so  provided  for  or  placed  in  any  orphan  asylum  or  such  other  institu- 
tion, such  child  shall,  when  practicable,  be  so  provided  for  or  placed  in  such 
asylum  or  other  such  institution  as  shall  be  controlled  by  persons  of  the  same 
religious  faith  as  the  parents  of  such  child." 

This  act  was  secured  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  county  superintendents  of  the  poor.  The  article 
which  was  destined  to  mark  the  beginning  of  this  bright  epoch  of 
reform  and  beneficence  in  child-saving,  came  from  Hon.  William  P. 
Letchworth,  a  member  of  this  board,  and  was  with  its  annual  report 
in  1875,  transmitted  to  the  legislature;  which  thereupon  enacted  the 
law,  forbidding  the  subjection  of  children  to  the  evils  and  perils  of 
poorhouses,  and  providing  the  proper  administration  of  relief  to 
them,  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  three  years,  which  minimum 
age  was  afterwards  reduced  to  two  years. 

In  the  following  year,  1876,  Mr.  Letchworth  visited  all  the  orphan 
asylums  in  the  state,  then  136  in  number,  and  reported  on  them 
through  the  board  to  the  legislature.  Thus  in  two  successive  years 
the  conscience  of  the  people  and  their  representatives  was  informed 
of  the  evils  and  abuses  respecting  children  in  the  poorhouses  and 
almshouses,  and  of  the  remedies  and  means  of  relief  and  conditions 
in  the  orphan  asylums. 

Mr.  F.  B.Sanborn  of  Massachusetts  stated  in  the  fourteenth  session  of 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  "  that  at  the  time 
when  the  state  boards  were  first  established,  poor  children  in  most 
of  the  states  were  associated  in  asylums  and  poorhouses  and  other 
public  establishments  with  the  adult  poor,  often  insane,  incurably 


CRAIG.  8 1 

diseased  or  vicious  in  life."  That  this  state  of  things  no  longer 
existed  he  ascribed  to  the  early  and  persistent  efforts  of  these  boards, 
selecting  as  an  example  that  of  New  York,  and  emphasizing  the 
work  of  Mr.  Letchworth. 

These  orphan  asylums  shelter  15,027  boys  and  12,580  girls,  besides 
their  wards  already  placed  in  families,  being  an  increase  of  441 
inmates  during  the  last  fiscal  year. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  tendency  in  these  institutions 
has  been  to  enlargement  and  aggrandizement,  by  omitting  to  place 
their  children  in  families,  and  thus  assuming  to  be  permanent  domi- 
ciles rather  than  transitional  places  in  the  transfer  of  their  wards  to 
family  homes.  If  so,  the  remedial  legislation,  while  succeeding  in 
moving  its  wards  from  the  poorhouses  to  the  orphan  asylums,  has 
failed  to  secure  its  ultimate  intention  of  removing  them  from  asylum 
to  family  life.  This  may  be  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  these  institu- 
tions are  close  corporations,  while  maintained  in  large  part  by 
municipal  contributions.  That  there  is  a  growing  danger  in  this 
direction  is  shown  by  statistics  gathered  by  the  State  Board  of 
Charities.  The  following  figures  are  approximate,  as  they  relate 
only  to  the  institutions  that  reported  these  special  data  in  1891, 
which,  however,  are  a  majority  of  the  whole  number. 

Of  18,556  orphan  and  destitute  children  in  such  asylums,  October 
I,  1891,  there  were  3,671  orphans,  10,356  half-orphans,  4,065  who  had 
both  parents  living,  and  465  whose  social  condition  was  not  given ; 
while  there  were  supported  by  cities,  counties  and  towns,  11,061  ;  by 
parents  and  friends,  1,717  ;  by  the  institutions,  2,430;  and  not  stated, 
3,348;  and  there  were  committed,  by  magistrates  and  courts,  8,130; 
by  commissioners  of  charities,  1,005  5  by  superintendents  of  the  poor, 
1,823 ;  by  overseers  of  the  poor,  938  ;  by  parents  and  friends,  4,422  ; 
and  not  stated,  2,238;  and  the  duration  of  institution  life  had  been 
5,763  for  less  than  one  year ;  5,757  for  one  year  and  less  than  three ; 
3,051  for  three  years  and  less  than  five  ;  2,782  for  over  five  years  ;  and 
not  stated,  303 — though  the  total  number  of  sick,  infirm,  crippled, 
deformed  or  disabled  was  only  about  three  per  cent.,  and  of  feeble- 
minded only  one  and  two-tenths  per  cent.,  with  thirteen  cases  of 
idiocy. 

A  high  authority  on  these  questions,  Mrs.  Charles  Russell 
Lowell,  in  her  report  to  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  transmitted 
with  its  annual  report  to  the  legislature  in  i8go,  has  given  proofs  of 
the  evils  in  the  present  system   or  want  of  system,  and  proposed 


82  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

remedies.  The  report  shows  about  $1,500,000  expended  for  the  care 
and  maintenance  of  about  an  average  of  14,000  children  for  the  pre- 
ceding fiscal  year  in  the  city  of  New  York,  with  other  facts,  from 
which  the  inference  is  plain  that  many  parents  with  their  offspring 
are  pauperized  by  removing  them  from  the  natural  relations  of  life, 
with  unwise  kindness,  if  not  inhumanity,  to  them,  as  well  as  injustice 
to  the  taxpayers. 

In  the  State  Charities  Record  for  December,  1891,  published  by 
the  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  the  leading  article,  by  Mrs.  Anna 
T.  Wilson,  formerly  of  Philadelphia,  now  of  the  State  Charities  Aid 
Association  of  New  York,  contrasts  the  care  of  dependent  children 
in  the  two  cities,  and  it  is  stated  that,  in  the  year  1890,  the  city  of 
New  York,  with  a  population  of  1,500,000,  appropriated  $1,647,- 
295.10  for  the  support  of  15,449  children  in  its  private  institutions, 
and  $192,997.74  for  the  support  of  909  children  on  Randall's  Island, 
making  $1,840,292.84  for  an  average  of  not  less  than  15,000  children  ; 
while  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  with  a  population  of  1,000,000,  appro- 
priated $28,724.82  for  the  support  of  an  average  of  less  than  250 
children  in  institutions.  The  system  of  boarding-out  children  until 
they  can  be  permanently  placed  by  adoption  in  families  is  in  Phila- 
delphia made  the  substitute  for  the  system  of  asylums  in  New 
York  ;  and  from  all  accounts  it  appears  to  be  working  well,  as  may  also 
be  said  of  the  new  extension  of  the  plan  from  dependent  to  destitute 
children,  including  those  convicted  of  felonies,  of  which  Homer 
Folks  writes  hopefully  in  the  Record  for  last  November.  It  should, 
however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  results  have  been  partly  due  to 
fortunate  combinations  of  circumstances,  including  the  assistance  of 
the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Pennsylvania  ;  and  that  data  from  large 
fields  in  other  states  and  countries  show  that  the  boarding-out  system 
has  not  always  proved  humane,  even  for  dependent  adults. 

For  juvenile  dependents  the  system  is  reported  from  England  as 
unsatisfactory  (p.  171,  appendix  to  the  last  edition  of  the  "Poor 
Law"  of  England,  by  T.  W.  Fowle :  Macmillan  &  Co.).  The  ex- 
tended and  successive  reports  of  Hon.  William  P.  Letchworth,  mem- 
ber of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  on  the  asylums  for  orphan  and 
destitute  children  in  the  state,  are  of  high  authority  and  value,  and 
give  cogent  reasons  for  preferring  the  asylum  system  of  New  York, 
with  its  incidental  evils,  to  the  boarding-out  system  of  Massachusetts 
and  Pennsylvania.  Among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Letchworth  here 
alluded  to  is  that  on  pauper  and  destitute  children,  transmitted  by 


CRAIG.  83 

the  State  Board  of  Charities,  with  its  annual  report,  to  the  legislature 
in  1875;  another  in  the  symposium  by  various  members  of  the 
committee  on  preventive  work  among  children,  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  in  1886;  and 
his  article  on  the  New  York  state  system  for  the  care  and  training  of 
dependent  children,  prepared  on  invitation  for  the  International  Con- 
gress, held  at  Paris,  June,  i88g. 

The  remedy  for  the  incidental  evils  of  orphan  asylums,  as  well  as 
for  the  essential  evils  which  obtain  in  the  absence  of  such  institu- 
tions, is  in  the  placing  of  children  as  inmates  in  families,  but  not 
as  boarders,  unless  with  the  most  protective  safeguards,  limiting 
such  measure  as  a  merely  provisional  expedient.  The  interstate 
agency  best  known  and  appreciated  is  the  Children's  Aid  Society  of 
New  York  city,  the  methods  of  which,  in  selecting  its  fields  and 
transplanting  its  cases  in  western  states,  have  been  sometimes  criti- 
cised, but  are  generally  justified,  as  conditionally  approved  in  the 
eleventh  session  of  the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correc- 
tion, by  Rev.  Hastings  H,  Hart  of  Minnesota,  the  last  president  of 
the  Conference. 

In  the  incorporated  hospitals  of  New  York  there  were  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  fiscal  year,  5,312  patients;  of  whom  a  large 
number  were  non-paying,  and  in  part  provided  for  by  municipalities. 
Such  indigent  patients,  however,  are  dependent  upon  private  charity, 
inasmuch  as  the  public  allowance  granted  seldom  defrays  the  whole 
or  even  the  greater  part  of  the  cost  of  their  maintenance,  care  and 
treatment. 

In  the  New  York  State  Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Home,  the  daily 
average  for  the  last  fiscal  year  was  864,  being  139  less  than  the  pre- 
ceding year;  the  greatest  number  was  1,012,  and  the  least  number 
723  present  during  the  year. 

There  is  no  public  institution  for  inebriates,  the  former  state  asylum 
for  this  class  having  been  converted  into  the  Binghamton  Hospital 
for  the  Insane. 

The  State  Asylum  for  Insane  Criminals  and  the  Criminal  Insane, 
at  Matteawan,  and  the  adult  and  juvenile  reformatories  are  not 
specifically  mentioned,  inasmuch  as  in  their  absence  their  inmates 
would  be  in  jails,  penitentiaries  and  prisons,  rather  than  in  poor- 
houses.  But  there  is  a  class  of  intermediate  institutions  intended 
for  juvenile  delinquents  who  are  not  felons  or  hardened  offenders, 
which  come  between   the  reformatories  and  the  orphan  asylums. 


84  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

Among  such  intervening  corporations  are  the  Catholic  Protectory, 
with  a  census  of  over  two  thousand,  and  the  Juvenile  Asylum  of 
New  York  city,  and  the  Burnham  Industrial  Farm  near  Albany. 

None  of  the  private  institutions  for  the  insane  or  other  classes  of 
afflicted  persons,  who  do  not  belong  to  the  indigent  and  dependent 
classes,  and  which  do  not  receive  public  aid,  are  described,  for  the 
reason  that  their  inmates  would  not  in  any  event  be  residents  or 
contingents  of  the  poorhouse  or  almshouse. 

Including  orphan  asylums  and  private  hospitals  receiving  munici- 
pal aid,  and  therefore  treated  as  semi-public  institutions,  and  already 
described,  there  are  about  500  charitable  corporations  in  the  state  of 
New  York,  which  are  generally  exempt  from  state,  county  and  city 
taxes,  but  not  from  special  assessments  for  local  improvements  to 
real  estate. 

These  corporate  charities,  with  state  and  municipal  institutions, 
are  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  which 
includes  powers  of  inspection  and  of  examination  under  oath,  and 
other  supervisory  functions,  but  none  executive  or  administrative, 
save  those  relating  to  the  alien  and  state  pauper  laws  already 
described,  and  those  respecting  the  incorporation  of  orphan  asylums 
and  other  institutions  having  to  do  with  children,  concerning  which, 
the  certified  consent  of  the  state  board  is  made  a  condition  precedent. 

An  impression  of  the  expenditures  by  public  and  private  institu- 
tions for  the  destitute  and  dependent  classes  in  the  state  of  New 
York  may  be  obtained  from  the  tables  published  by  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  in  1891,  and  from  their  returns  to  this  board  for  the  last 
fiscal  year,  some  of  the  conclusions  from  which  are  here  epitomized. 

The  census  of  state  and  private  institutions  receiving  public  aid 
for  the  deaf,  the  blind,  the  idiots  and  feeble-minded,  the  insane  and 
other  special  classes,  having  been  given  already,  the  population  of 
the  same  classes,  in  the  county  and  city  institutions,  namely,  the 
poorhouses  and  almshouses,  is  here  presented  approximately  and  in 
round  numbers,  as  follows  : 

Idiots.  Epileptics.  Blind.  Deaf.  Children  under  Children  between 

2  years  of  age.  2  and  16  yrs  of  age. 

600.  500.  200.  50.  150.  600. 

Of  the  number  of  children  between  two  and  sixteen  years  of  age, 
five  hundred  and  forty  were  in  the  almshouse  of  the  city  and  county 
of  New  York,  but  classified  in  special  departments,  though  not 
separated  as  they  should  be  from  the  almshouse  system. 


CRAIG.  85 

The  amount  expended  in  relief,  through  county  and  city  officers 
for  the  fiscal  year,  was  in  round  numbers  as  follows : 

In  Poorhouses  and  Almshouses.  In  Out  Relief.  Total. 

$2,700,000  $570,000  $3,300,000 

The  value  of  the  establishments  of  the  counties  and  cities  for  the 
poor  is  in  round  numbers  $7,800,000,  and  the  value  of  the  labor  of 
the  inmates  for  the  fiscal  year  was  $75,000. 

The  small  income  from  employment  of  the  paupers  may  be 
explained  in  part  by  their  general  condition,  which  is  infirm,  as 
shov/n  not  only  by  returns,  but  also  by  the  observation  of  visitors  at 
these  poorhouses  and  almshouses,  which  in  fact  at  the  present  time 
are,  more  nearly  than  many  persons  believe,  in  the  nature  of 
municipal  infirmaries.  But  medical  direction  of  the  energies  of  these 
sufferers  in  channels  of  proper  work  would  doubtless  yield  the 
greatest  benefit  to  them  in  improving  their  physical,  mental  and 
moral  condition  and  character,  as  well  as  lessen  financial  burdens  in 
justice  to  the  taxpayers. 

Returning  now  to  private  institutions  of  special  sorts,  we  find  that 
the  estimated  value  of  the  property  owned  by  the  orphan  asylums 
and  homes  for  the  friendless,  October  i,  1891,  was  in  real  estate 
$20,193,722.27,  and  in  personal  property  $5,765,717.47,  making  a 
total  valuation  of  $25,959,439.74 ;  that  their  receipts  for  the  prior 
year  were  $7,464,439.77,  and  their  expenditures  for  the  same  period 
were  $6,776,265.43  ;  that  the  incorporated  hospitals  for  the  same 
year  returned  receipts,  in  the  aggregate,  $3,477,942.61,  and  expendi- 
tures, in  the  aggregate,  $3,338,097.31  ;  and  that  the  free  dispensaries, 
for  the  same  period,  show  receipts  $346,689.86,  and  expenditures 
$292,942.63. 

The  total  expenditures  for  the  indigent  and  dependent  classes, 
including  paupers,  for  the  year  ending  1891,  were  $17,605,660.58. 

Our  review  of  laws  and  agencies  relating  to  humanity  and  social 
economy  in  the  state  of  New  York,  has  not  lost  sight  of  the  vital 
relation  between  the  primary  work  of  protecting  the  producers  in 
society  from  lapsing  into  indigence,  and  the  secondary  work  of 
preventing  the  poor  from  falling  into  pauperism.  But  the  means  of 
performing  the  paramount  duty  of  protection  to  the  workers  come 
directly  within  the  purview  of  this  article  upon  the  care  and  cure  of 
pauperism  only  in  the  matter  of  the  cost  of  private  and  public  charity 
and  relief.     From  the  tables  of  statistics  collected  and  compiled  by 


86  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

the  State  Board  of  Charities,  and  appended  as  schedules  in  its 
annual  reports  to  the  legislature,  the  following  comparative  statement 
has  been  made,  showing  expenditures  for  charitable  and  reformatory- 
purposes  between  the  years  1880  and  1891,  both  inclusive,  to  wit: 

Year.  Amount  expended.  Year.  Amount  expended. 

1880 $  8,482,648   71  1881 $  9,260,147    77 

1882. 9,320,14260  1883 9.938,03705 

1884 10,642,76386  1885 11,538,73986 

1886 12,027,99001  1887 12,574,07467 

1888 13.31S.698  97  1889 14,868,73377 

1890 16,349,842  43       189I 17,605,660  58 

It  thus  appears  that  in  this  period  of  twelve  years  the  expenditures 
have  increased  a  little  more  than  one  hundred  per  cent.  Though 
the  population  of  the  state  increased  only  about  nineteen  per  cent., 
as  is  shown  on  the  basis  of  the  federal  census,  it  also  appears  from 
the  reports  of  the  comptroller  of  the  state  that  its  wealth  has 
increased  about  fifty  per  cent,  during  the  same  period.  Of  this 
increase  in  expenditures — $9,123,011.87 — the  sum  of  $1,222,282.61 
relates  to  institutions  managed  by  the  state ;  and  the  State  Reform- 
atory at  Elmira,  and  the  Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Home  at  Bath,  two  of 
the  state  institutions  existing  prior  to  1880,  did  not  appear  in  the 
statistics  at  the  beginning  of  this  period  of  twelve  years.  Again,  of 
this  increase  the  sum  of  $1,171,053.58  relates  to  institutions  owned 
and  controlled  by  counties  and  cities,  leaving  $6,729,675.68  increase 
in  the  institutions  under  the  direction  and  control  of  incorporated 
benevolent  associations.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  the  increase  of  the  cost  of  public  and  private  relief  and 
charity  is  due  to  private  charity,  with  public  aid  administered 
through  private  corporations;  and  that  the  fraction  of  less  than  one- 
sixth  of  such  increase  chargeable  to  the  state  institutions  is  further 
reduced  on  account  of  two  of  them  existing,  but  not  reporting  to  the 
board  in  1880. 

There  is  no  reason -to  disbelieve  or  doubt  that — excepting  perhaps 
the  Soldiers  and  Sailors'  Home,  the  existence  of  which  is  justified  by 
patriotic  sentiment — each  and  all  the  state  institutions  for  relief  or 
reform,  including  the  eight  state  hospitals  for  the  insane,  the  State 
Institution  for  Feeble-minded  Children  at  Syracuse,  the  Custodial 
Asylum  for  Feeble-minded  Women  at  Newark,  the  reformatories 
and  the  asylums  for  the  blind  and  the  deaf,  do  save  to  the  people 
more  than  their  cost  in  preventing  pauperism,  and  therefore  in  pro- 
tecting both  the  industrial  and  the  indigent  classes. 


CRAIG.  87 

But  when  all  thus  accomplished  for  the  harmony  of  humanity  and 
economy,  and  in  the  reconciliation  of  kindness  to  the  afflicted  with 
prudence  for  the  taxpayers  and  bread-winners  and  burden-bearers 
of  society,  is  considered  with  reference  to  the  remaining  evils  result- 
ing from  the  vicious  habits  of  a  large  residue  of  the  dependent 
classes,  the  problems  of  pauperism  seem  to  be  insoluble.  The  cure 
of  the  evils  must  be  found,  if  at  all,  in  radically  new  remedies. 

The  paupers  go  by  families.  Hence  the  Code  of  Criminal  Pro- 
cedure produces  no  appreciable  effect  by  providing  that  "  the  father, 
mother,  and  children  of  sufficient  ability,  of  a  poor  person  who  is 
insane,  blind,  old,  lame,  impotent  or  decrepit,  so  as  to  be  unable  by 
work  to  maintain  himself,  must  at  their  own  charge,  relieve  and 
maintain  him  in  a  manner  to  be  approved  by  the  overseer  of  the 
town  where  he  is,  or  in  the  city  of  New  York  by  the  commissioners 
of  charities  and  correction." 

While  the  able-bodied  pauper  practically  has  been  excluded  from 
the  poorhouse,  his  relative,  the  impotent,  who  is  "  unable  by  work 
to  maintain  himself,"  but  who  is  improvident,  intemperate  and  incon- 
tinent, is  supported  in  seasons  and  periods  of  his  own  election,  in 
order,  as  if  by  express  design,  to  prepare  him  to  procreate  a  progeny 
of  paupers.  Thus  the  humane  expedient  of  the  revised  statutes 
injures  both  the  subject  and  society,  in  providing  without  restriction 
or  condition  that  "every  poor  person  who  is  blind,  lame,  old,  sick, 
impotent  or  decrepit,  or  in  any  other  way  disabled,  or  enfeebled,  so 
as  to  be  unable  by  his  work  to  maintain  himself,  shall  be  maintained 
by  the  county  or  town  in  which  he  may  be."  » 

Relief  is  impracticable  and  impossible  under  existing  laws.  The 
remedy,  if  any,  may  be  found  in  classifying  vicious  and  infirm,  as 
well  as  vagrant  and  able-bodied  paupers,  with  the  criminal  classes, 
and  subjecting  them  to  indefinite  confinement.  The  indeterminate 
sentence  is  the  proper  and  potent  corrective.  Already  approaches 
to  its  principle  have  been  made  in  cases  of  recidivous  criminals,  by 
legislation  in  several  states  relating  to  felons,  and  in  Ohio  respecting 
mere  misdemeanants.  But  the  despairing  thought  in  criminal 
anthropology  is,  that  criminal  characters  are  being  recruited  from 
pauperdom  faster  than  they  can  be  reduced  by  counteracting 
processes. 

Radical  and  reformatory  legislation  is  required  to  protect  the 
state  from  crime  as  well  as  pauperism,  by  sequestering  from  society 
the  habitual  and  hardened  pauper,  as  well  as  the  recidivous  criminal, 
until  he  reforms  or  dies. 


88  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

Questions  of  civil  or  moral  right  are  not  here  involved,  as  if  the 
relief  proposed  was  by  the  sacrifice  of  life  or  mutilation  of  the  body. 
The  alteration  of  the  physical  organism  so  as  to  prevent  the  propa- 
gation of  the  kind  is  not  necessary,  and  therefore  is  not  justifiable. 
Indeed  it  is  inadequate  and  inexpedient,  inasmuch  as  the  data  of 
experiments  in  child-saving,  as  well  as  theories  of  natural  selection, 
show  that  the  vicious  and  criminal  classes  are  transmitted  by  succes- 
sion with  more  facility  and  potency  through  their  creation  of  envi- 
ronments and  external  influences,  thus  producing  correspondence  in 
their  offspring,  than  through  heredity. 

The  principle  of  indeterminate  sentences  for  vicious  paupers  being 
not  for  retribution,  but  for  restraint  and  reform,  is  just  and  merciful; 
and  its  application  for  the  protection  of  the  people  has  nothing  to 
overcome  except  the  inertia  of  society. 

The  foregoing  review  of  the  New  York  system  of  indoor  relief  for 
her  infirm  and  indigent  people,  who  may  be  characterized  as  her 
worthy  poor,  as  well  as  for  her  worthless  paupers,  is  representative 
of  similar  systems  of  sister  states.  Though  the  progress  of  the 
Empire  State  is  greater  than  the  average  of  the  advances  of  her 
sister  commonwealths,  there  is  one  prevailing  trend  among  them  all 
tending  toward  general  unity  of  design,  if  not  uniformity  in  execu- 
tion. The  concrete  presentation  confined  to  the  one  may  therefore 
be  taken  as  a  suggestion  of  the  many  better  than  would  be  their 
separate  consideration  in  the  abstract. 

The  New  York  dispensation  through  the  poorhouse,  with  its 
developnient  into  distinct  and  distributive  relief  to  children,  and  to 
the  deaf,  the  blind,  the  feeble-minded,  and  the  insane,  in  their 
respective  schools,  hospitals,  and  homes,  state,  municipal  and  corpo- 
rate, is  therefore  taken,  in  its  imperfection,  as  typical  of  American 
administration  of  charity  in  public  institutions. 

The  evolution  of  this  system  is  less  advanced  on  lines  of  classifi- 
cation and  administration  under  the  roof  of  the  poorhouse  proper, 
than  on  lines  of  segregation  and  organization  within  other  walls. 
While  the  sexes  are  separated,  and  to  some  extent  the  very  sick  are 
retired  from  the  merely  infirm,  there  is  no  distinction  observed 
between  the  virtuous  and  the  vicious  poor. 

What  of  the  future?  Does  the  progress  in  the  last  quarter-century 
forecast  the  next  ?     Yes  and  No. 

Yes,  as  the  segregation  in  separate  institutions  has  been  the  proof 
and  the  fruit  of  development,  and  so  will  be  continued  until  provision 
shall  be  made  for  all  the  worthy  poor  in  separate  homes. 


HENDERSON.  89 

No,  in  that  the  proper  discipHne  and  detention  of  paupers  who 
are  unworthy  and  unsafe,  must  be  provided  not  by  an  evolution  of 
the  poorhouse  system,  but  by  its  conversion  into  a  place  of  continued 
security  for  the  protection  of  society. 


PUBLIC  RELIEF  AND  PRIVATE  CHARITY. 

PROFESSOR    CHARLES   R.    HENDERSON,   UNIVERSITY   OF 

CHICAGO, 

The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  to  present  in  outline  some  of  the 
more  important  relations  of  state  and  voluntary  charity.  The  ulti- 
mate social  ideal  of  modern  philanthropy  does  not  contemplate 
almsgiving  and  almstaking,  but  rather  fellowship  in  opportunity 
and  justice.  We  are  not  here  to  patch  up  a  decaying  caste-wall 
which  divides  mankind  into  lofty  patrons  and  cringing,  begging 
clients.  Perhaps  there  is  no  form  of  social  organization  which 
excites  more  distrust  and  hatred  among  wage-earners  than  conven- 
tional benevolent  societies.  No  doubt  this  is  largely  due  to  the 
ordinary  misunderstanding  of  their  motives  and  aims.  Often  do  we 
hear  the  bitter  reproach  of  those  whose  earnings  are  scant,  that 
philanthropy  is  dealing  with  symptoms  and  not  with  causes;  that 
charity  in  the  sense  of  relief  is  mockery.  A  brief  review  of  the 
recent  literature  of  charity  will  show  that  this  reproach  is  not 
altogether  deserved.  Those  who  have  undertaken  to  cut  off  this 
devil's  grass  have  most  of  all  men  found  the  strength  and  length  of 
its  roots.  Look  at  the  programme  of  this  very  Congress  and  you 
will  see  that  serious  study  is  being  given  by  administrators  of  charity 
to  the  economic,  domestic,  educational,  and  political  defects  which 
cause  or  aggravate  the  evils  of  pauperism  and  crime.  It  may 
honestly  be  said  that  one  of  the  chief  incentives  to  sociological 
investigation  is  the  desire  to  go  below  the  mere  machinery  of 
administering  relief  funds  to  the  complex  origins  of  social  miseries. 
No  one  entitled  to  consideration  regards  social  pathology  as  more 
than  a  temporary  phase  of  social  organization  and  development,  and 
all  feel  that  to  heal  social  diseases  and  to  promote  health  all  the 
factors  of  social  energy  must  be  called  into  play. 


90  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

The  first  duty  of  charity  is  to  secure  higher  wages,  shorter  hours, 
better  physical  and  moral  conditions  of  labor.  It  was  once  thought 
by  some  persons  that  orthodox  political  economy  must  question  or 
deny  the  possibility  of  making  any  change  in  these  factors  by  any 
voluntary  human  effort.  Now  it  seems  to  be  more  generally 
believed  that  wages,  hours  and  conditions  are  not  altogether  fixed 
by  fate  and  fore-ordination,  but  partly  also  by  free  will.  The  blind 
drivings  of  natural  selection  are  helped  out  by  social  selection  after 
a  conscious  design.  Philanthropy,  law,  cooperation,  united  demands, 
may  secure  substantial,  though  not  unlimited,  improvement  in  indus- 
trial conditions.  The  first-rate  economists  of  England  have  very 
frequently  been  misread  or  carelessly  interpreted.  Perhaps  the 
name  of  Ricardo  is  most  of  all  connected  with  the  awful  "  iron  law," 
that  wages  tend  of  necessity  to  fall  to  the  minimum  where  the 
laborer  must  be  in  constant  peril  of  becoming  a  dependent;  but 
many  forget  that  it  was  Ricardo  who  taught  these  memorable  words  : 

"  The  friend  of  humanity  cannot  but  wish  that  in  all  countries  the  laboring 
classes  should  have  a  taste  for  comforts  and  enjoyments,  and  that  they  should 
be  stimulated  by  all  legal  means  in  their  exertions  to  procure  them.  .  .  In 
those  countries  where  the  laboring  classes  have  the  fewest  wants  and  are  con- 
tented with  the  cheapest  food,  the  people  are  exposed  to  the  greatest  vicissi- 
tudes and  miseries." 

Economics  teaches  us  that  hope  may  take  the  place  of  dull 
despair.  Starvation  rates  of  wages  are  not  part  of  the  order  of 
eternal  justice  or  of  omnipotent  and  relentless  destiny.  The  starva- 
tion of  one  willing  to  work,  in  sight  of  palaces,  green  fields  and 
bursting  granaries,  is  to  our  minds  intolerable.  The  word  "  over- 
production "  of  coats,  where  there  are  a  million  bare  backs,  signifies 
social  wrong  and  stupidity,  a  cover  for  inaccurate  thinking  and 
unjust  doing.  It  is  as  intolerable  to  see  any  class  of  persons  partly 
supported  at  public  expense  as  parasites,  who  should  be  wholly 
supported  by  the  trade  which  makes  their  employers  rich.  If  these 
employers  declare  that  they  see  no  way  of  raising  wages,  and  plead 
the  "  wickedly  overworked  "  law  of  supply  and  demand,  we  accept 
their  confession  of  ignorance  and  incapacity  as  "  captains  of  industry," 
but  we  do  not  accept  their  conclusion.  For  the  history  of  industrial 
agitation  during  this  century  has  taught  us  something.  It  has  not 
taught  anarchy,  hate,  rebellion,  but  kindness,  patience  and  strong 
hope.  It  has  not  taught  us  to  curse  the  rich  nor  to  despise  and 
slander  the  trades-unions.     It  has  shown  the  possibility  of  a  slow  but 


HENDERSON.  9 1 

steady  gain  in  the  material  conditions  out  of  which  domestic  and 
civil  progress  can  grow.  English  factory  legislation  has  proved, 
what  the  iron  and  cotton  kings  once  denied,  that  money  can  be  made 
in  face  of  the  competition  of  the  world  without  working  naked  women 
in  the  mines,  and  babies  at  the  loom,  and  grown  men  beyond  the 
average  power  of  endurance.  The  "  captains  of  industry  "  are  now 
as  sure  of  that  as  Shaftesbury  and  Oastler  were  when  they  formed  the 
forlorn  advance  which  made  the  fight.  The  trades-unions  of  England, 
with  all  their  faults,  have  proved  that  it  is  safe  to  trust  political 
power  to  workingmen,  that  responsibility  sobers  men,  and  that  a 
savings-bank  account  or  huge  strike  fund  makes  them  conservative. 
We  admit  that  loveless  and  ugly  deeds  deform  noble  aspirations ; 
and  yet  we  can  see  that  Britain  has  not  erred  in  giving  to  unions  of 
workingmen  recognition  and  respect. 
y  While  multitudes  are  being  paid  a  rate  below  the  life-line,  charity 
as  a  substitute  for  justice  is  cruelty.  All  the  charity  in  the  world  can 
never  sweep  back  this  ocean-tide  of  misery  caused  by  an  unjust  rate 
of  pay  and  hours  of  toil  prolonged  till  they  kill.  The  average  rate  of 
life  for  toilers  must  be  brought  up  nearer  to  that  of  the  well-fed, 
well-clothed,  v.'ell-taught  people  who  live  on  rents  and  interest,  even 
if  thereby  the  rate  of  interest  and  rent  falls  a  point  or  two.  Worse 
things  are  happening  than  passing  a  dividend  on  copper  stocks  or 
distillery  investments.  Slavery  was  not  indispensable  to  the  South, 
and  sweating-dens  may  be  omitted  without  injury  to  the  progress  of 
the  North.  To  assure  yourself  that  this  is  the  right  place  for 
scientific  charity  to  begin,  go  with  a  volunteer  friendly  visitor  in  a  city 
where  they  believe  in  friendly  visiting.  Many  such  have  gone  out  with 
pockets  full  of  pennies  for  poor  children,  and  buoyant  with  expecta- 
tion, only  to  discover  that  pennies  thrown  about  do  no  good,  and 
that  pity  is  not  such  a  crying  need  as  justice.  Not  more  alms,  but 
more  wages,  should  be  the  aim  of  our  charity.  The  "  higher  classes  " 
are  the  persons  to  lead  in  this  crusade.  The  best  proof  that  one 
belongs  to  the  really  superior  people  is  that  he  has  the  will  and 
inclination  and  ability  to  help  emancipate  multitudes  from  the  most 
degrading  form  of  slavery,  living  upon  public  alms.  Culture  has  no 
higher  task.  Universities  may  perform  no  worthier  work  than 
showing  how  a  better  economical  basis  can  be  laid  for  the  future 
intellectual  and  social  deliverance  of  the  masses  of  mankind.  It  is  a 
great  achievement  to  describe  and  account  for  the  actual  systems  of 
finance,  transportation,  communication,  banking,  tariff,  and  to  show 


92  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

how  wealth  is  produced  and  exchanged.  But  it  will  be  an  immensely- 
greater  achievement,  intellectually  and  morally,  for  our  great 
economists  to  show  how  this  wealth  can  be  more  equitably  dis- 
tributed. Who  can  doubt,  when  he  surveys  the  vast  strides  of 
science  and  goodness  in  our  age,  that  such  economists  and  merchant 
princes  will  be  found? 

But  economists  and  captains  of  industry  must  have  the  aid  of 
others.  They  must  have  the  co-operation  of  "  laboring  men."  They 
must  even  have  the  consent  of  drunkards,  sots,  idlers,  vagabonds, 
tramps.  All  the  world  cannot  make  drunkards  well-to-do.  The 
gold  of  California  would  slip  through  a  tramp's  fingers  and  leave 
him  poor.  So  all  teachers,  parents,  editors,  preachers,  missionaries, 
women  with  varied  gifts,  godly  demagogues,  ambitious  attorneys, 
agitators,  reformers,  retired  merchants  with  time  heavy  on  their 
hands— philanthropy  needs  them  all.  Before  all  free  soup- houses, 
lodging  inns,  charity  balls,  gambling  raffles  for  widows'  benefit, 
subscriptions  for  orphanages,  we  must  have  diffused  knowledge, 
means  for  social  recreation,  night  schools,  all  preventive  agencies 
which  stand  against  pauperism  as  with  sword  of  flame.  Adminis- 
trators of  charity  know  best  of  all  that  what  they  do  is  a  makeshift. 
They  know  that  almstaking  cannot  be  made  harmless  to  recipients. 
No  one  has  invented  a  way  of  living  at  the  expense  of  others  or  by 
the  permission  of  others  without  degradation.  There  is  boundless 
room  for  widening  justice,  for  the  fellowship  of  social  equals,  for 
reciprocity  in  services,  but  there  is  no  place  for  almsgiving  as  an 
excuse  for  neglecting  fair  dealing.  There  is  no  territory  on  God's 
earth  for  a  class  of  idle  and  dependent  rich  or  idle  and  dependent  poor. 

Cojnparative  and  Historical. 

While  all  social  agencies  are  busy  dealing  with  causes  of  pauperism , 
that  malady  itself  confronts  us  as  a  tremendous  social  fact.  It  cannot 
scare  us  nor  force  bounty  by  display  of  numbers.  We  are  not 
generous  upon  compulsion.  It  would  be  possible  for  the  capable 
majority  to  exterminate  the  incompetent  members.  But  this  method, 
which  was  precisely  that  employed  by  our  barbarian  ancestors,  who 
kept  family  clubs  to  kill  off  feeble  grandsires,  is  not  to  be  thought  of 
in  our  age.  We  cannot  endure  the  sight  of  pain.  Sympathy  is 
organized  to  relieve  distress.  Social  remorse  torments  us  in  the 
enjo5'-ment  of  unshared  luxuries.  Sensitiveness  of  nerves  and  con- 
science establishes  relief. 


HENDERSON.  93 

In  the  modes  of  relief  administration  we  discover  great  diversity, 
due  to  peculiarities  of  situation,  history,  temper,  habits,  sentiments, 
laws  and  governments  of  various  peoples.  Turning  to  Germany,  we 
see  that  since  the  sixteenth  century  the  state  has  recognized  as  its 
duty  the  public  care  of  the  poor.  First,  it  enforces  the  obligation  of 
those  immediately  bound  to  care  for  dependent  persons,  as  relatives 
and  neighboring  communities.  But  even  when  a  legal  obligation 
does  not  exist,  the  public  care  of  the  poor  will  not  forbid  the  free 
benevolence  of  individuals,  societies,  and  the  church.  Public  care  of 
the  poor  must  merely  complete  private  care  and  enter  when  this  is 
inadequate.  Both  pursue  a  common  end,  and  they  should  work  in 
harmony.  More  than  in  any  other  departments,  those  of  charity  are 
decentralized.  The  burden  is  laid  on  local  political  organizations,  as 
parishes  and  poor  unions,  since  the  necessities  are  best  known  in  the 
neighborhood,  the  best  administrators  can  be  chosen,  and  the  burden 
of  taxation  is  less  likely  to  be  excessive.  Private  persons  are  selected 
for  this  purpose,  those  who  have  knowledge  of  the  conditions,  a 
sound  understanding  of  human  nature,  and  devotion  to  the  common 
weal.  The  number  is  so  large  that  it  is  impossible  to  pay  salaries;  , 
the  almoners  work  for  honor  and  from  sympathy.  In  Elberfeld  and 
in  the  cities  which  have  imitated  its  example,  the  public  districts 
include  all  who  apply  for  aid  and  show  the  need  of  it;  but  the  officers 
appointed  by  the  authorities  work  in  harmony  with  private  and 
church  charities,  so  that  none  are  neglected  ;  voluntary  charity  has 
ample  scope,  and  abuses  are  swiftly  corrected.  The  local  political 
unit  should  bear  the  expense  of  those  who  belong  to  it  and  have  a 
residence.  If  a  case  does  not  properly  belong  to  a  parish  or  union  it 
is  cared  for  by  the  state,  and  questions  of  responsibility  are  deter- 
mined by  a  state  tribunal.  The  aid  is  regarded  as  a  loan,  and  the 
relatives  are  expected  to  reimburse  the  parish  if  the  indigent  person 
cannot  do  so.  The  sources  of  funds  are  endowments,  collections, 
gifts  or  legacies,  fines,  taxes  and  imposts. 

In  France,  the  principles  are  stated  by  M.  Chevalier  as  follows  : 

"The  commune  will  limit  the  circle  of  its  action,  will  encourage  and  stimu- 
late the  development  of  private  beneficence,  in  which  it  ought  always  to  see  a 
valuable  auxiliary  and  not  a  rival.  It  will  come  to  its  aid  and  will  obtain  for 
its  assistance  the  influence  necessary  to  have  its  useful  counsels  accepted,  and 
to  co-ordinate  without  confusing  aid  coming  from  both  sources,  Charitable 
legislation  in  France  is  actually  dominated  by  this  principle,  that  if  society 
has  the  moral  duty  never  to  leave  any  real  suffering  without  solace,  yet  assist- 
ance can  never  be  demanded  by  the  indigent  as  a  right.     The  greatest  liberty 


94  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

is  left  to  works  of  private  charity.  Wlien  these  works  reach  the  dignity  of 
institutions  they  obtain  the  privileges  of  civil  life  by  means  of  conditions  easy 
to  fulfil.  Public  charity  has  no  monopoly  in  France,  not  even  of  solicitations 
and  public  subscriptions.  Charity  is  administered  by  the  state,  by  departments 
and  by  comnmnes.  The  commu7ie  is  the  unit  of  organization  of  charity,  and  it 
is  there  that  it  becomes  personal  and  direct." 

In  the  same  article  occurs  this  criticism,  which  shows  how  we  are 
regarded  by  a  high  authority  over  sea : 

"  In  certain  states  of  the  Union  politics  plays  a  rOle  in  public  relief,  and  it 
is  believed  that  for  some  politicians  the  functions  of  overseer  of  the  poor  are 
his  part  of  the  victors'  spoils.  And  of  what  he  receives  for  the  office  a  part 
goes  to  the  future  voters  for  the  same  politician." 

That  seems  hard  for  a  European  to  understand.  It  is  only  too 
easy  for  us. 

In  the  United  States  we  have  as  many  different  systems  as  there 
are  states  ;  and  in  each  state  as  many  plans  as  there  are  counties  ;  and 
in  each  township  as  many  devices  as  there  are  trustees,  and  some  of 
these  devices  are  not  exactly  heavenly  in  origin  and  character.  Out 
of  so  many  competing  experiments  we  ought  to  reap  some  results, 
for  the  process  of  vivisection  without  anaesthetics  is  costly  enough  to 
raise  expectations.  Yet  it  should  be  said  that  the  state  laws,  origi- 
nally derived  from  the  English  sources,  give  a  degree  of  uniformity 
to  administration.  Speaking  of  the  rule,  the  state  cares  for  all 
defective  and  dependent  persons  who  are  homeless  and  helpless  in 
its  institutions.  The  local  officers  give  a  certain  amount  of  aid  to  the 
friendless  and  helpless  in  their  homes.  In  addition  to  this,  churches 
and  benevolent  societies,  lodges  and  individuals,  give  aid  to  many 
who  have  not  been  entirely  cut  off  from  personal  connections  with 
some  social  group.  The  charitable  efforts  of  European  countries  are 
studied,  and  the  inventiveness  of  our  inventive  people  is  taxed  to 
find  new  and  hopeful  methods  of  relieving  distress.  State  supervision 
of  private  charities  is  much  needed  and  hardly  exists,  while  private 
charities  are  administered  as  a  rule  without  mutual  understanding 
and  co-operation. 

In  England,  to  take  another  example,  the  establishment  of  a  gov- 
ernment board  has  helped  to  unify  the  aid  given  by  local  authorities, 
but,  save  where  the  organized  charities  are  well  established,  there  is 
no  mode  of  intelligent  co-operation  between  public  and  private 
modes  of  help.     Indoor  relief  is  used  as  a  check  upon  outdoor  relief. 


HENDERSON. 


95 


Points  of  General  Agreement. 


The  Christian  nations  of  our  age  generally  agree  that  all  depend- 
ents, defectives  and  delinquents  are  wards  of  society.  The  state,  as 
the  only  organ  of  the  collective  will,  must  see  to  it  that  no  citizen 
perishes,  physically  or  morally,  without  care.  Of  course  the  fore- 
bodings of  Mr.  Spencer  may  prove  to  be  wise  warnings,  and  the 
most  sympathetic  administrator  of  charity  will  admit  the  peril  of  the 
position.  But,  for  good  or  ill,  the  modern  nations  have  launched  upon 
this  troubled  sea  of  experiment.  No  man  is  to  be  driven  from  door  to 
door  until  with  curses  on  his  lips  he  freeze  or  starve.  Whatever  the 
state  permits,  authorizes  or  encourages,  it  is  never  free  from  the  moral 
duty,  in  the  last  resort,  to  see  that  relief  is  given.  It  must  then  be 
the  duty  of  the  state  to  see  that  general  society  is  not  profoundly 
harmed  by  the  vicious  working  of  a  local  and  limited  association. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  personal  and  private  charity  surpasses 
official  charity  in  spontaneity,  versatility,  adaptability,  idealism, 
religious  fervor.  It  is  thought  that  official  charity  surpasses 
private  charity  in  completeness,  adequacy,  equality  of  burdens,  and 
in  the  control  of  criminal  tendencies  often  mix-ed  up  with  pauperism. 
Thus  it  is  agreed  that  it  is  wise  to  combine  the  working  of  public  and 
private  charity  as  far  as  possible. 

Some  system  is  needed  to  secure  harmony  and  unity  between 
public  and  private  beneficence.  In  Germany  the  famous  Elberfeld 
system  seems  to  be  the  one  best  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the 
country.  In  America,  at  present,  that  system  would  be  impractica- 
ble. Our  citizens  have  not  been  taught  by  custom  to  accept  such 
tasks  from  the  state.  We  are,  therefore,  looking  to  the  voluntary 
and  paid  services  of  officers  and  visitors  of  the  associations  of  chari- 
ties. In  these  associations  visitors  are  secured  by  appeals  to  good- 
will and  civic  virtue.  In  no  city  have  we  secured  an  adequate  supply 
of  competent  visitors,  but  steady  advance  has  been  made.  A  still 
further  step  of  progress  will  be  made  when  public  administrators 
learn  the  value  of  full  co-operation  with  these  associations.  The 
inspectors  of  public  charity  are  usually  shrewd  detectives  of  fraud,  but 
that  very  quality  unfits  them  for  the  personal  influence  which  a  friendly 
visitor  can  wield.  The  salaried  officers  are  too  few  to  do  such  work 
as  the  Elberfeld  visitors,  even  if  they  were  inclined  to  do  it. 

It  seems  certain  that  the  state  should  never  subsidize  denomina- 
tional charities,  but,  if  compelled  to  employ  them,  should  simply 


96  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

pay  for  services  actually  rendered.  But  there  is  no  objection  to 
encouraging  the  most  cordial  co-operation  in  the  work  of  charity  and 
reform. 

Changing  the  point  of  view,  we  may  consider  xhe private  initiation 
of  charity.  And  first,  of  the  individual  benefactor.  The  personal 
element  is  the  most  vital,  direct,  and  human,  especially  if  it  is  not 
official.  It  is  an  acknowledged  social  and  legal  principle  that  the 
relatives,  associates,  neighbors  and  co-religionists  are  first  of  all 
bound  to  assist  an  indigent  person.  It  is  only  after  all  these  sources 
have  failed  that  the  state  consents  to  open  its  hand.  But  individual 
beneficence  should  not  be  insulated.  The  right  can  never  be  con- 
ceded to  a  man  so  to  do  as  he  will  with  his  own  as  to  work  harm  to 
society.  Kindness  may  find  ways  of  usefulness  with  organized 
charities,  even  when  money  is  not  in  possession.  The  busy  rich,  able 
and  willing  to  give  large  sums,  can  do  most  good  in  experimental, 
preventive  and  educational  charity. 

The  relation  of  church  to  public  charity  is  delicate  and  vital.  The 
church  is  no  longer  the  chief  almoner  of  charity.  The  poor  apply 
to  public  authorities  when  they  come  to  want.  The  members  of  our 
churches  who  are  indigent  are  relatively  few.  It  is  the  habit  ol 
church  members  to  refer  needy  persons  to  the  public  authorities  in 
most  places.  If  public  outdoor  relief  were  abolished,  the  church 
would  again  come  to  care  for  the  helpless.  But  the  necessity  of 
civic  co-operation  would  then  be  as  great  as  ever,  for  ecclesiastical 
charities  have  been  as  much  abused  as  state  relief.  Churches  need 
to  cultivate  a  sense  of  social  unity.  Benevolence  that  is  insulated 
from  a  general  system  corrupts  recipients. 

All  religious  services  in  public  prisons  and  hospitals  should  be 
given  by  churches  and  the  expense  should  never  be  met  from  the 
common  treasury.  Those  who  believe  in  religion  should  not  ask 
unbelievers  to  help  sustain  religion  by  enforced  taxation.  I  honor 
all  good  chaplains  in  army  and  prisons,  and  I  know  that  they  are 
rendering  faithful  and  holy  service.  It  would  be  cruel  injustice  not 
to  have  such  men  where  they  are,  and  the  state  should  not  forbid 
their  access  to  those  who  wish  their  presence.  But  they  should  be 
paid  by  an  alliance  of  churches,  not  by  a  tax.  I  say  this  just  because 
I  believe  in  Christianity  and  dislike  to  see  it  go  begging  to  the  state 
for  appropriations. 

Good  people  should  also  support  societies  to  aid  discharged  pris- 
oners.    Lady  Meath,  of  England,  has  shown  to  Christian  women  a 


McCOOK.  97 

way  of  lightening  up  the  cloudy,  dreary  days  of  their  sisters  in  the 
county  poorhouses  all  over  the  land.  Public  as  well  as  private  hos- 
pitals can  be  made  more  cheerful  and  successful  in  their  divine  work 
of  healing  by  the  ministry  of  flowers,  fruits,  songs  and  kindly  looks 
of  the  King's  Daughters. 

Thus  we  see  a  growing  integration  and  unification  of  charity  work. 
The  university  sends  to  London's  East  End  students  to  ponder 
misery  at  its  source.  Church  and  state  join  hands.  Private  and 
public  agencies  seek  an  understanding.  The  Prince  of  love  and 
peace  is  drawing  all  men  to  Himself,  and  hence  closer  to  each  other. 


TRAMPS. 


PROFESSOR  JOHN  J.  McCOOK,  TRINITY   COLLEGE,  HARTFORD, 

CONNECTICUT. 

Aimless  wandering,  no  visible  means  of  support,  capacity  to  labor 
along  with  fixed  aversion  to  labor,  begging  from  door  to  door,  camp- 
ing on  property  of  others  without  their  consent — no  one  of  these  by 
itself,  but  all  of  them  together,  make  up  the  legal  picture  of  that 
species  of  vagabond  whom  we  have  come  lately  to  call  the  Tramp. 
In  the  days  of  Richard  11,  five  hundred  years  ago,  he  used  to  be 
called  "sturdy  vagabond,  valiant  beggar,"  and  was  so  objectionable 
then  and  later  that  the  whipping-post,  ear-slitting  and  hanging  were 
his  legal  portion,  and  a  fine  was  the  reward  of  the  man  who  harbored 
or  helped  him. 

In  those  days,  and  for  centuries,  the  average  pauper  clung  to  his 
parish  because,  within  orderly  limitations,  an  existence  was  assured 
him  there.  The  sturdy  vagabond  must  therefore  have  been  a  per- 
son to  whom  orderly  life  was  intolerable,  mere  existence  insufficient, 
fixed  conditions  of  any  kind  unendurable,  and  who  broke  away  from 
the  inglorious  hum-drum  of  the  birth-spot  and  ventured  out  into  the 
life  and  stir  of  the  wide  world.  That  is  to  say,  he  was  built  on  the 
general  lines  of  our  nineteenth-century  tramp  ;  and  mere  convenience 
and  brevity  seem  to  be  the  only  justification  for  the  invention  of  a 
new  name  for  him. 


98  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

Whether  the  name  tramp  originated  in  England  or  America  I 
cannot  be  sure.  It  has  no  place,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  find, 
in  the  statutes  of  Great  Britain  or  Canada,  while  many  of  our  states 
have  adopted  it  into  their  legal  phraseology.  New  Jersey  began  in 
1876;  and  up  to  1892,  when  I  made  an  examination  of  the  statute- 
books  of  all  the  states,  eighteen  others  had  followed;  while  a  nine- 
teenth and  twentieth  use  the  word  in  the  index  or  in  defining 
Vagrant.  The  word  is  now  freely  used  in  England  in  every-day 
life,  and  in  the  literature  of  pauperism  and  vagrancy. 

For  whatever  reason,  it  is  not  in  general  favor  among  tramps 
themselves  in  this  country.  I  have  talked  with  a  considerable 
number  of  them  on  a  footing  of  friendliness  and  apparent  confidence, 
and  find  that  "  bum  "  is  the  generic  term  used  by  them.  They  care- 
fully distinguish,  however,  between  class  and  class,  and  there  is 
manifestly  an  aristocracy  among  them,  and  a  middle  and  lower 
order;  although,  as  might,  perhaps,  be  expected,  absolute  agree- 
ment has  not  been  reached  as  to  which  is  upper  and  which  lower 
crust.  A  few  weeks  ago  I  had  a  long  talk  with  one  of  the  "  salti- 
grades  " — if  my  spider  friends  will  permit  me  to  borrow  one  of  their 
names — one  of  the  order  of  jumpers,  that  is,  train-jumpers.  He 
put  his  family  first,  and  spoke  with  undisguised  contempt  of  the 
"  pike  bum"  who  "  hasn't  the  nerve  to  jump  a  train," — even  rising 
and  imitating  the  pike  bum's  long,  awkward  gait.  He  was  still 
more  disdainful  in  his  description  of  the  "  city  "  or  "  shovel  bum  " 
and  the  "  mission "  or  "  religious  bum."  And  he  almost  lacked 
vocabulary  to  express  his  feelings  towards  the  "  gay  cat,"  an 
inferior  order  of  beings  who  begs  of  and  otherwise  preys  upon  the 
bum — as  it  were  a  jackal  following  up  the  king  of  beasts. 

He  called  the  nobility  of  the  order  "  hobos."  It  was  thus  he 
spelled  it.  He  had  often  asked  old  hobos — for  he  was  but  twenty- 
six — how  it  ought  to  be  spelled  and  what  it  meant.  They  did  not 
know.  It  is,  however,  now  unquestionably  the  generally  accepted 
title  for  the  railroad  tramp,  in  America  ;  and  I  may  venture  to  say 
here,  though  I  should  not  care  to  say  it  to  one  of  the  nobility  for 
fear  of  unduly  exciting  him,  it  is  even  appropriated  at  times  by 
"  pike  bums  "  and  by  "  shovel  bums,"  I  am  in  almost  daily  corres- 
pondence by  letter  with  one  of  the  former  class  who  not  only  uses  it 
but  spells  it  in  the  most  approved  French  fashion — "haut-beaux  ! " 

My  saltigrade  friend  above  referred  to  as  priding  himself  upon 
belonging  to  the  nobility  of  the  order,  gave  me  many  incidents  con- 


McCOOK. 


99 


cerning  his  own  career  which  are  curious.  They  may  not  all  he 
true.  In  fact,  I  doubt  not  he  told  me  more  than  one  lie.  Still  men 
are  not  apt  to  invent  things  to  their  own  discredit,  and  the  following 
was  not  given  in  a  spontaneous  or  boastful  manner,  but  in  answer  to 
very  direct  and  leading  questions.  He  had  "  done "  thirty  days 
each  in  Erie  county,  New  York ;  White  Plains,  New  York  ;  Brook- 
lyn, Connecticut ;  thirteen  days  in  San  Francisco,  California  ;  twenty 
days  in  Savannah,  Georgia;  ten  days  in  Chicago;  five  days  in  the 
Tombs,  New  York  City,  and  had  been  arrested  in  Syracuse,  New 
York,  and  Richmond,  Virginia. 

He  had  passed  part  of  one  winter  in  an  almshouse — "  to  get  a  new 
suit  of  clothes";  had  been  nine  days  in  Charity  Hospital,  Black- 
well's  Island,  for  a  finger  bruise  got  in  jumping  a  train  ;  six  weeks  in 
a  Philadelphia  hospital  for  a  secret  disease: — they  have  no  aversion 
to  such  a  disease  when  winter  is  coming  on,  he  told  me  in  passing, 
and  several  eminent  medical  specialists  confirm  his  story;  a  whole 
winter  in  a  poorhouse  hospital  in  the  interior  of  New  York  for  a  toe 
lost  while  jumping  a  train;  five  months  in  a  Boston  hospital  for  an 
abscess  on  his  neck,  caused,  as  the  doctors  thought,  by  the  jar  of 
riding  on  trucks — he  had  only  been  six  months  on  the  road  at  that 
time,  he  explained  apologetically  1  And  he  had  also  been  to  dis- 
pensaries now  and  then  for  medicine  required  by  some  trifling  cold, 
though  he  generally  carried  stuff  with  him  for  this. 

Apart  from  the  above  he  had  "  never  had  a  day's  sickness  in  his 
life,"  he  said,  and  spoke  with  much  enthusiasm  of  the  vigor  and 
physical  strength  of  the  fairly  initiated  hobo. 

It  would  be  a  pity  to  overlook  one  other  item  in  the  self-confessed 
activities  of  this  gentleman.  He  had  voted  eight  times  on  one  single 
election  day  in  New  York  city,  receiving  therefor  a  total  of  sixteen  dol- 
lars. The  manner  in  which  the  thing  was  accomplished  was  described 
by  him  in  such  fashion  as  to  convince  me  that  he  was  telling  the  truth 
— and  I  am  not  naturally  credulous,  nor  yet  void  of  knowledge  of  the 
ways  in  which  this  branch  of  practical  politics  is  cultivated  in  New 
York  and  elsewhere.  I  should,  however,  perhaps  add  that  I  have 
been  assured  by  a  New  York  city  detective  and  by  another  tramp 
that  this  was  undoubtedly  a  lie.  The  detective's  confidence  was 
based  on  the  record  of  prosecutions,  "  showing  how  careful  they 
had  been!" — the  tramp's,  on  the  high  price  obtained.  He  had 
never  got  anything  like  that  money  himself!  Which  reminds  me 
that  nearly  half  of  the  dozen  or  so  of  tramps  whom  I  have  recently 


lOO  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

picked  up  on  the  street  here,  and  with  whom  I  have  had  opportunity 
for  free  conversation  on  this  and  other  points,  have  admitted  that 
they  have  received  compensation  direct  or  indirect  for  their  vote, 
mentioning  the  four  states  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut 
and  California  as  the  places  where  they  had  done  business.  One, 
who  belonged  rather  to  the  order  of  "  city  bums,"  at  first  resented 
the  mere  suggestion  that  he  could  ever  have  voted  for  money. 
Presently  I  returned  abruptly  to  the  subject  with  the  question,  "  Do 
you  mean  to  say  then  that  your  own  side  gave  you  nothing  for  turn- 
ing out?  "  Whereupon  he  lifted  his  head  and  with  dignity  replied, 
"  What  me  own  side  give  me  for  voting  's  nobody's  business  but  me 
own."     Beyond  this  I  could  not  go,  and  he  would  not. 

I  have  spoken  of  tramp  laws  in  the  various  states.  Here  is  a 
list  of  the  states  which  one  tramp  tells  me  he  has  been  in  (I  select 
the  first  on  my  note-book ;  I  have  talked  with  several  whose  record 
is  similar)  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Louisiana,  Texas,  California  (twice).  New  Mexico  (three  or  four  times), 
Arizona,  Montana,  Colorado,  Indian  Territory,  Missouri,  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Kentucky,  North  Dakota,  Wisconsin, 
Minnesota,  Utah,  Arkansas,  Michigan,  Oregon,  Nevada.  He  had 
been  in  Washington,  D.  C,  of  course,  and  had  passed  through  Ten- 
nessee, though  he  had  not  stopped  there.  He  had  been  through  a 
great  part  of  Canada,  and  had  visited  England  in  a  cattle  steamer, 
landing  at  Liverpool  and  tramping  thence  to  Manchester.  He 
had  spent  the  night  in  a  casual  ward,  and  did  not  like  oakum-picking, 
since  it  made  the  fingers  sore.  He  thought  England  not  compar- 
able with  America — people  would  not  give  as  freely  there.  He  got 
back,  he  said,  through  the  offices  of  the  American  consul,  and  gave 
details  concerning  the  return  passage  which  may  have  been  wholly 
false,  but  which  needed  only  to  be  half  true  to  be  painfully  sugges- 
tive of  the  extent  to  which  the  brute  survives  in  the  human  animal. 

This  particular  man  had  a  rather  gay,  light-hearted  way  of  talking. 
His  face  was  not  bad,  though  his  eye  was  hardly  true.  He  was  decently 
dressed  ;  but  he  wore  no  collar,  and  had  other  earmarks  which,  com- 
bined, had  emboldened  me  to  accost  him  upon  the  street.  He  looked 
temperate  and  had  not  even  the  odor  of  liquor  about  him.  He  was, 
however,  no  total  abstainer,  and  described  with  much  glee  what  he 
thought  a  remarkably  good  plan  for  getting  a  drink — a  plan  almost 


McCOOK.  lOI 

too  ingenious  to  be  either  true  or  false.  But  there  is  no  question  of 
these  three  things  ;  that  the  average  vagabond  is  no  total  abstainer, 
that  he  always  manages  in  some  fashion  to  get  drink  when  he  par- 
ticularly wants  it,  and  that  he  is  enough  of  a  "  rectifier,"  albeit  hold- 
ing no  license  from  the  United  States  government,  to  know  that  the 
real  thing  in  drink  is  alcohol,  and  that  water  is  the  cheapest  and 
best  adulterant.  In  this  as  in  some  other  things  he  is  a  close  observer 
and  an  astute  philosopher.  I  shall  presently  have  something  to  say 
of  this  in  a  statistical  way. 

Both  this  man  and  three  others  whose  faces  I  now  recall,  reeled  off 
the  names  of  the  states  they  had  visited,  giving  the  railroads  patronized 
from  point  to  point,  with  a  facility  and  a  rapidity  that  made  one's  head 
swim.  I  confess  it  was  all  beyond  me,  though  I  have  traveled  some- 
what. And  yet  localities  and  lines  of  communication  were  occasion- 
ally identified  in  such  fashion  as  to  give  me  general  confidence  in  the 
genuineness  of  the  itinerary.  In  one  instance  I  mentioned  a  number 
of  places  familiar  to  myself,  but  by  no  means  prominent  for  size  or 
otherwise,  and  purposely  put  them  in  wrong  states.  In  every  case  I 
was  arrested  with,  "  Did  you  say  Steubenville?  Yes,  I've  been  in 
Steubenville — on  the  Panhandle  road.  But  see  here,  sonny,  Steu- 
benville ain't  in  Pennsylvania  ;  it's  in  Ohio  " — and  so  on.  This  man 
professed  to  be  from  Rhode  Island. 

Such  knowledge,  it  is  true,  could  be  obtained  by  a  railroad  brake- 
man  of  sufficiently  wide  experience.  And  indeed  I  am  more  and 
more  inclined  to  think  that  many  of  our  jumper-tramps  have  been 
brakemen,  and  the  reverse.  I  have  talked  with  several  engine- 
drivers  and  firemen  who  are  of  this  opinion,  and  in  four  instances 
tramps  have  personally  informed  me  that  they  had  been  brakemen. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  many  a  brakeman  has  a  very  tender 
spot  in  his  heart  for  a  tramp,  and  that  he  finds  ways  of  helping  him 
along  in  spite  of  the  universal  reprobation  of  the  management.  He 
fails  to  discover  him  in  box  car,  or  open  car,  or  on  the  hunters, 
or  the  trucks.  He  puts  him  off  when  he  must,  and  is  more  than  half 
pleased  when  he  finds  at  the  next  stop  that  he  has  stowed  himself 
away  again,  lie  rescues  him  from  starvation,  as  in  one  instance 
related  to  me,  when  he  finds  him  only  too  successfully  concealed  for 
a  long  transcontinental  stretch.  Engineers,  firemen  and  conductors 
are  far  more  stern.  But  they  too  are  not  insensible  to  the  pathos  of 
"the  poor  devils  trudging  along  by  the  rails." 


I02  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

This  interchange  explains  the  wonderful  skill  of  the  tramp  in  jump- 
ing: and  riding  trains.  One  of  them  told  me  he  had  dived  from  the 
platform  into  an  open  car — a  "gondola"  as  they  call  it— while  the 
train  was  passing  at  full  speed.  It  tore  every  button  from  his  clothes, 
but  didn't  hurt  him.  I  thought  this  a  lie  until  an  officer  employed 
in  a  freight  station  mentioned  incidentally  that  he  had  seen  that  sort 
of  thing  himself.  And  I  hear  from  all  sides  among  railroad  men  of 
their  remarkable  expertness  in  the  ordinary  ways  of  catching  on. 

The  brakeman  is  the  land  sailor.  An  instance  came  to  me  lately 
of  a  man  who  had  gone  to  sea  once  or  twice,  against  the  wishes  of 
his  family.  He  compromised  eventually  on  railroading,  and  had 
crept  up  from  brakeman  to  conductor.  And  I  know  a  man  of  excel- 
lent family  and  education,  who  has  left  a  good  farm  in  eastern  Con- 
necticut, first  for  braking,  and  then  for  firing  on  a  train.  In  the  old 
days  he  would  have  gone  to  sea.  Our  tramps  have  the  instinct  of 
the  brakemen,  but  without  the  industry  and  laboriousness  of  the 
better  part  of  them. 

However,  this  easy  transition  from  the  one  to  the  other  suggests 
the  propriety  of  railroad  managers  having  a  more  careful  eye  than 
they  seem  always  to  have  had  to  the  record  and  the  habits  of  their 
candidates  for  the  responsible  office  of  brakeman. 

The  number  of  female  tramps  of  whatever  kind  is  not  large. 
There  is,  however,  a  limited  number  of  them.  I  have  heard  them 
called  magpies,  petticoat  bums,  and  bags.  They  mate  with  a  male, 
often  arranging  the  alliance  during  a  winter  in  an  almshouse,  leaving 
the  institution  at  different  dates  to  avoid  suspicion,  meeting  at  an 
agreed-upon  spot,  and  sharing  thereafter  bed  and  board.  The  man 
has  the  lion's  share  of  this  co-partnership.  The  woman  begs,  occa- 
sionally raises  money  by  solicitation  at  extremely  low  rates — from  lo 
to  50  cents — cooks,  washes,  and  serves  her  lord  as  his  will  and  her 
devotion  may  suggest.  They  camp  out,  occupy  vacant  houses,  stop 
with  farmers,  or  even  in  taverns.  With  the  winter  the  partnership 
expires  by  limitation.  I  have  been  told  of  one  instance  in  which 
such  a  female  served,  in  every  way,  a  camp  of  sixteen  or  eighteen 
tramps — to  such  a  degree  of  baseness  can  the  sex  relation  be  low- 
ered. I  have  read  of  similar  arrangements  in  the  vagabond  life  of 
Germany,  but  these  have  been  actually  told  me  here. 

But  I  must  give  over  this  gossiping  for  a  more  severe  view  of 
the  field.  My  observations  above  given  have  followed,  not  pre- 
ceded, an  attempt  at  statistical  investigation.    And  first,  the  number 


McCOOK.  103 

of  tramps  in  America.  Massachusetts  is  the  only  state  which,  so 
far  as  I  know,  attempts  to  collect  the  facts  necessary  for  a  calcula- 
tion. In  1891,  the  average  daily  number  lodged  in  police  stations 
or  public  lodging-houses  for  wanderers  was  427.3.  In  answer  to  the 
question  "Where  do  you  usually  sleep?"  on  the  blank  from  which  I 
received  1,349  replies  in  the  winter  of  1891-2,  377  gave  police  station 
or  other  public  lodging-house.  Assuming  this  proportion  of  377  to 
1,349  to  be  approximately  representative  of  the  ratio  between  the 
number  frequenting  such  places  at  night  and  the  total,  we  shall  con- 
clude that  the  Massachusetts  total  contingent  to  the  tramp  army  was 
1,529.7.  And,  assuming  that  the  Massachusetts  contingent  bears 
the  same  relation  to  the  entire  army  that  the  population  of  Massa- 
chusetts bears  to  that  of  the  United  States— 29.97 — the  total  for  this 
country  will  be  45,845.  I  suspect  this  is  not  far  from  correct, 
though  it  is  partly  built  upon  assumptions.  It  is  from  five  to  fifteen 
thousand  below  the  current  guess  estimates,  which  fact  is  slightly 
confirmatory ;  since  estimates  of  crowds  are  almost  invariably  over 
the  truth. 

I  have  spoken  of  blanks  with  1,349  replies.  These  came  from 
fourteen  different  places  to  which  blanks  had  been  sent.  The 
answers  were  taken  down  generally  by  police  officers,  a  separate 
blank  being  used  for  each  case.  There  were  twenty-four  questions 
and  eight  sub-questions,  with  a  space  for  remarks. 

Besides  the  large  amount  of  material  thus  secured,  Mr.  W. 
Vallance,  clerk  of  the  Board  of  Guardians  for  Whitechapel,  London, 
secured  for  me  tabulated  replies  to  similar  questions  from  841  of  his 
casual  lodgers,  October,  1891.  The  basis  for  careful  conclusions 
was  therefore  far  broader  than  anything  ever  before  attempted,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware.  These  results  have  been  compared  with  the 
analysis  of  the  52,335  cases  which  have  come  under  the  observation 
of  the  German  Arbeiter  Colonien  since  their  establishment,  so  far  as 
the  much  more  meagre  statistical  scope  of  these  would  allow. 

A  brief  account  of  the  more  important  results  of  my  inquiry  may 
be  of  use  here  : 

Fifty-seven  per  cent,  of  our  American  tramps  have  trades  or  pro- 
fessions; forty-one  per  cent,  are  unskilled  laborers.  Ninety-eight 
trades  were  represented  by  the  1,349  individuals — and  nearly  half  of 
the  persons  belonging  to  these  were  attached  to  employments  which 
require  constant  locomotion,  as  sailors,  firemen,  teamsters  and  brake- 
men,  or  are  associated  with  these  occupations — such  as  shoemakers, 


I04  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

curriers,  hostlers,  blacksmiths  and  horseshoers.  Three  and  six- 
tenths  per  cent,  more  are  in  a  trade  which  is  drawn  upon  for  some  of 
the  most  striking  figures  illustrative  of  the  unrest  and  transitoriness 
of  human  existence — the  weavers. 

One  tramp  in  twenty  is  under  20  years  of  age;  three  out  of  five 
under  35 ;  seventy-five  out  of  one  hundred  under  40,  and  only  one 
in  one  hundred  and  eleven  over  70.  Ours  are  much  younger  than 
the  English  and  considerably  younger  than  the  German,  though 
they  too  are  in  the  prime  of  life. 

This  was  the  winter  when  ihe  grippe  was  raging,  and  yet  only  8.5. 
per  cent,  of  them  claimed  to  be  suffering  from  bad  health,  and  83.5 
per  cent,  declared  specifically  that  their  health  was  good.  In 
England  91  per  cent,  admitted  that  their  health  was  good.  The 
German  colonies  gave  no  statistics  under  this  item. 

What  makes  people  tramps  ?  The  question  designed  to  throw 
light  on  this  was  "  Why  did  you  take  to  the  road  ?"  And,  of  course, 
most  of  them  attributed  it  to  their  being  "  out  of  work  " — 82,8  per 
cent,  in  fact.  A  few  were  "  tired  of  work,"  or  "  wanted  to  take  life 
easy";  still  more  "  wanted  to  see  the  country";  more  still  charged 
it  to  "drink,"  a  {qw  to  "roving  disposition"  and  a  very  few  to 
"won't  work."  55  per  cent,  of  them,  however,  admitted  that 
they  had  not  tried  to  get  work  the  day  they  were  questioned,  which 
is  suggestive;  and  18  per  cent,  of  them  "didn't  know"  when  they 
were  going  to  work  again,  while  2  per  cent,  more  frankly  replied 
"  never,"  to  the  question,  "  When  are  you  going  to  work  again  ?" — 
which  is  still  more  suggestive.  And  most  suggestive  of  all  will  be 
thought,  perhaps,  the  reply  made  later  on,  which  showed  that  63, 
per  cent,  of  them  are  confessedly  intemperate. 

If  ever  accurate  statistics  are  collected,  I  think  it  will  be  found 
that  this  is  almost  exactly  the  percentage  of  cases  of  pauperism  in 
general  due  to  intemperance.  I  believe  industrial  causes  have  but 
little  to  do  with  pauperism  in  general,  or  vagabondage  in  particular. 

Fifty-six  per  cent,  of  our  tramps  are  of  American  nativity.  Next 
follow  Ireland,  England,  Germany,  Canada,  Norway  and  Sweden, 
and  Scotland.  There  were  only  two  Italians.  A  considerable  num- 
ber, possibly  a  majority  of  the  American  section,  are  of  foreign,^ 
chiefly  Irish  parentage.  I  have  no  statistical  basis  for  this  statement, 
but  think  it  to  be  probably  correct.  England  has  almost  no  foreign 
element  to  deal  with  among  her  tramps,  and  Germany  practically 
none  at  all. 


McCOOK.  105 

More  than  nine-tenths  of  them  are  unmarried,  and  a  like  propor- 
tion can  read  and  write.  This  is  not  far  from  the  proportion  of  adult 
white  literates  according  to  the  1880  census.  In  intelligence  and 
education  it  is  my  impression  that  the  average  tramp  is  not  appre- 
ciably different  from  the  general  population.  He  is  certainly  not 
inferior,  I  think. 
,  "  How  they  are  housed  and  fed  "  is  an  important  question.  In 
pleasant  weather  they  live  out  of  doors.  Eleven  per  cent,  admitted 
having  been  at  some  time  inmates  of  almshouses.  I  suspect  this  to 
be  below  the  truth.  But  in  any  event  the  close  quarters  presendy 
become  insufferable,  and  by  April  the  captives  are  off.  Some  of 
them  go  south  for  the  winter,  living  thus  in  perpetual  summer.  A 
.  friend  tells  me  that  while  running  an  engine  on  the  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  railroad  he  always  passed  a  troop  of  them  with  faces  turned 
south  in  October,  and  another  troop  with  faces  turned  north  in 
April. 

Thirty-two  per  cent,  of  them  admitted  having  been  in  hospital, 
many  of  them  more  than  once.  And  1  have  it  from  hospital  sur- 
geons and  from  the  lips  of  members  of  the  fraternity,  that  a  hospital 
is  considered  a  good  place  for  the  winter,  and  that  certain  diseases 
commonly  regarded  formidable  are  rather  welcomed  by  them  late  in 
the  fall,  as  promising  indefinite  asylum  in  this  comfortable  and 
healthful  resort.  Only  one-sixth  of  them  claimed  to  have  been  in 
hospital  at  their  own  charges  ;  the  rest  were  paupers  of  some  kind. 
And  such  slight  work  as  is  done  in  almshouses  is  done  in  summer, 
when  they  are  away.  So  that  the  hospital  and  almshouse  fraction 
may  be  set  down  as  a  public  burden  pure  and  simple. 

While  outside  institutional  walls  they  are  variously  housed  in  box- 
cars, police  stations,  wayfarer's  rests,  cheap  lodging-houses,  hotels, 
wagons,  water-closets,  churches  and  school-houses  ;  and  the  balance 
accept  lodging  at  "  Mother  Green's,"  to  use  the  German  tramp's 
phrase  for  camping  out. 

"  How  do  they  generally  secure  their  food  ?  "  Twenty  per  cent, 
say  they  beg;  nine  per  cent,  more  "beg  and  work";  over  two  per 
cent,  more  "  beg  and  steal."  Three  per  cent,  live  off  their  "  friends." 
Twenty-seven  per  cent.  "  work  "  or  "  work  and  want."  Tliirty-eight 
per  cent,  say  they  "pay  for  it."  How  for  the  most  part  this  is  done 
is  lelt  to  the  imagination.  I  am  convinced  that  the  life  of  a  fraction? 
possibly  the  greater  part  of  this  company  consists  in  alternations  of 
work  and  travel  or  debauchery.     The  work  is  suspended  as  soon  as 


I06  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

the  means  for  the  last  named  have  been  secured,  and  the  "  sobering 
up  "  is  commonly  at  public  expense. 

Counting  their  house-room  at  nothing,  I  am  convinced  that  $240 
a  year  would  be  a  moderate,  and  $200  a  year  a  very  conservative 
estimate  for  the  actual  cost  per  head  of  our  army  of  tramps.  This 
would  amount  to  about  $10,000,000  annually.  This  has  to  be  paid 
for,  of  course,  by  somebody.     And  that  somebody  is  the  taxpayer. 

Only  six  per  cent,  admitted  having  been  convicted  of  crime. 
Manifestly  they  thought  drunkenness  no  crime,  for  thirty-nine  per 
cent,  admitted  conviction  for  drunkenness.  I  suspect  that  these 
figures  give  a  fairly  correct  impression  of  the  real  state  of  the  case. 
Things  to  eat  and  things  to  wear  are  probably  looked  upon  by  the 
vagabond  as  common  property.  That  view  of  things  is  apt  to  come 
to  the  front  as  soon  as  men  get  away  from  the  restraints  of  orderly 
life;  of  which  the  history  of  war  gives  ample  evidence,  and  that  of 
picnicking  and  summering  is  not  lacking  in  it.  But  felony  is,  I 
believe,  confined  to  the  few.  Criminal  assault  is  possibly  the  com- 
monest form  of  felony  known  among  them.  I  doubt  if  weapons  are 
often  carried  by  them. 

One  of  their  number  who  has  been  on  the  move  for  thirty  years,  in 
writing  to  me  complains  bitterly  of  the  lawless  minority  who  are 
"  mean  enough  for  anything,"  and  who  by  their  evil  deeds  bring  the 
quieter  majority  into  disrepute.  Since  I  have  spoken  of  the  con- 
tempt in  which  the  ''jumper"  holds  the  "pike  bum"  and  other 
"  bums,"  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that  this  informant  lays  the  burden  of 
crime  upon  that  same  proud  and  haughty  aristocracy  of  jumpers. 

In  answer  to  a  circular  containing  various  questions,  I  received 
replies  from  thirty-five  chiefs  of  police  and  a  number  of  other  per- 
sons of  supposed  wisdom  and  knowledge.  Of  the  chiefs  of  police 
twenty -one  stated  that  no  conditions  of  person — as  cleanliness,  etc. — 
were  insisted  upon  in  their  cities  for  public  lodging,  and  twenty-two 
that  no  conditions  of  work  were  imposed. 

Sixteen  stated  that  the  same  persons  returned  frequently,  three 
occasionally,  two  periodically  ;  ten  that  the  same  persons  did  not 
return  frequently. 

Twenty-seven  stated  that  applicants  were  always  received  ;  four 
that  they  were  not ;  six  that  they  were  liable  to  be  arrested  ;  two, 
imprisoned  as  tramps  or  vagrants,  if  they  returned  often. 

Twenty-two  put  the  able-bodied  at  from  ninety  to  one  hundred  per 
cent.     Only  three  fixed  it  as  low  as  fifty.    • 


McCOOK.  107 

Sixteen  thought  it  on  the  whole  advantageous  to  offer  lodging  at 
public  expense;  eighteen  were  of  the  opposite  opinion.  Of  the  six- 
teen, four  favored  it  on  grounds  of  general  humanity,  two  out  of 
regard  to  the  possible  deserving  minority  among  the  tramps.  Nine 
favored  it  on  grounds  of  public  policy,  of  which  six  for  protection  of 
property,  one  for  protection  of  person. 

Eleven  thought  compulsory  work  was  the  best  solution  of  the 
tramp  question;  two  confinement;  two  corporal  punishment,  of 
which  one  the  shot-gun ;  one  severer  laws ;  two  enforcement  of 
present  laws;  one  furnishing  employment;  three  believed  in  the 
workhouse ;  one  thought  encouragement  ought  to  be  refused  ;  and 
one  thought  the  repeal  of  the  McKinley  bill  would  do  it! 

Not  a  single  one  advocated  moral  measures.  I  am  sure  this  is  not 
because  our  police  authorities  attach  no  importance  to  such  instru- 
mentalities. I  fear  it  is  because  they  think  the  tramp  is  impermeable 
to  them.  I  should  be  sorry  to  declare  myself  wholly  of  this  opinion. 
On  the  other  hand,  moral  measures  when  tried  have  generally  been 
unsuccessful.  Two  habits  have  chiefly  to  do  with  the  conditions  of 
vagabond  existence — the  habit  of  idleness  and  the  habit  of  intemper- 
ance :  to  which  perhaps  a  third  might  be  added — the  habit  of  physical 
uncleanness.  Now  moral  means  are  very  powerful  as  preventives  of 
these  habits,  and  are  invaluable  allies  in  overcoming  them.  But  the 
first  thing,  I  suspect,  must  be  forcible  restraint  from  all  these  habits, 
and  forcible  inculcation  of  their  opposites. 

And  from  this  it  will  be  plain  that  1  should  recommend  uniform 
laws  in  all  the  states  committing  drunkards  and  vagrants  to  places 
of  detention  where  they  must  abstain  from  drink,  must  work,  must 
keep  clean,  must  avoid  licentiousness — and  that  for  an  indefinite 
period.  They  might  be  made  to  nearly  or  quite  support  them- 
selves in  such  establishments.  And  in  that  event  we  should  save 
$10,000,000  or  so  a  year.  And  then  there  would  be  the  chance  of 
reforming  some  of  them,  of  which  there  is  now  almost  none  whatever. 

But  as  long  as  they  are  left  to  roam  at  will,  restrained  only  by  an 
occasional  spasm  of  enforcement  of  the  vagrant  laws,  it  would  be  an 
immense  gain  if  soft-hearted  people  would  stop  giving  them  money. 
Be  sure  it  goes  almost  without  an  exception  for  drink  or  worse.  The 
person  who  will  give  any  beggar  a  coin  just  because  it  seems  too 
hard  to  refuse  him,  ought  on  similar  grounds  to  give  razors  and  guns 
to  madmen  and  children. 


I08  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

VAGRANCY. 

A.  O.  WRIGHT,  MADISON,  WISCONSIN. 

Vagrancy  is  an  offense  not  confined  to  our  own  country  or  our  own 
time.  It  has  been  known  in  all  lands  and  all  ages.  Perhaps  the 
largest  amount  of  vagrancy  ever  known  was  a  little  before  and  after 
the  Middle  Ages,  in  Europe,  when  the  breaking  up  of  the  feudal 
state  of  society  and  the  false  ideas  of  charity  inculcated  by  mediaeval 
Christianity  created  a  large  amount  of  vagrancy  and  begging.  The 
mendicant  monks  had  consecrated  one  form  of  vagrancy  to  the  service 
of  the  church.  The  universities  sent  out  swarms  of  beggar  students. 
The  artisans,  after  having  served  their  seven  years  of  apprenticeship, 
were  then  expected  to  spend  an  indefinite  number  of  years  as  Wander- 
biirschen,  traveling  from  place  to  place  in  search  of  work,  and  often 
eventually  became  tramps  in  our  own  sense  of  the  word.  There  was 
no  system  of  public  poor  relief,  but  charity  was  supplied  either  by 
loose  and  unsystematic  individual  benevolence  or  by  the  doles  ot 
nobles  or  of  monasteries,  both  of  which  encouraged  vagrancy.  In 
England,  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  and  James,  the  great  increase  of 
vagrancy  was  attributed  at  the  time  to  the  changed  conditions  of 
agriculture,  which  threw  large  numbers  of  farm  laborers  out  of 
employment.  All  sorts  of  remedies  were  tried  for  the  great  evil. 
At  one  time  "sturdy  beggars"  were  hung  by  the  hundred.  Whip- 
ping was  the  common  method  of  punishment.  The  authorities  of 
each  parish  whipped  vagrants  at  the  cart's  tail  from  their  own  parish 
to  the  next.  In  more  recent  times  there  are  still  large  numbers  of 
able-bodied  beggars  tramping  through  "merry  England,"  although 
an  efifective  poor  law  system  has  provided  amply  for  all  the  disabled 
poor,  so  amply  that  one-half  of  the  laboring  population  of  England 
to-day,  if  they  live  more  than  fifty  years,  will  die  in  the  workhouse. 

In  this  country  there  is  very  little  begging  by  persons  who  are 
actually  maimed  or  disabled,  or  who  pretend  to  be  so.  Our  systems 
of  poor  relief  provide  bountifully  for  all  cases  of  real  need,  and  in 
all  ordinary  times  there  is  work  enough  for  every  one  to  do  in  this 
paradise  of  the  poor  man;  and  yet  we  find  a  large  number  of  able- 
bodied  men  tramping  around  the  country  and  living  upon  the  public 
in  one  form  or  another.  These  constitute  the  tramp  problem.  The 
tramp  is  an  anomaly  in  this  country.   Where  the  demand  for  labor  is 


WRIGHT.  109 

SO  great,  and  the  pay  is  comparatively  so  high,  it  is  a  surprising  thing 
that  we  have  a  large  number  of  able-bodied  men  tramping  around 
the  country,  apparently  looking  for  work.  I  remember  very  well, 
about  twenty  years  ago,  in  the  city  of  Austin,  Minnesota,  hearing  the 
farmers  in  harvest-time  offer  on  the  streets  four  dollars  a  day  for  men 
to  work  binding  wheat,  and  at  the  very  time  I  saw  dozens  of  able- 
bodied  men  standing  on  the  streets  and  refusing  to  accept  those 
wages.  The  city  marshal  at  that  time  told  me  that,  along  with 
the  annual  migration  of  harvest  hands  following  the  northward 
ripening  of  the  grain,  there  came  also  a  large  number  of  tramps,  who 
refused  to  labor  at  any  price.  The  harvest  was  merely  their  excuse 
for  tramping. 

The  characteristic  of  the  genuine  tramp  is  that  he  will  not  work 
if  he  can  help  it.  I  saw  a  tramp,  some  years  ago,  in  the  Waukesha 
county  poorhouse,  who  had  been  kept  in  a  cell  on  bread  and  water 
for  six  months,  every  day  being  offered  his  choice  of  good  food  and 
liberty  if  he  would  work,  and  every  day  refusing  to  work  on  any 
terms.  I  suppose  he  got  some  other  food  besides  bread  occasion- 
ally smuggled  into  his  cell  by  other  inmates  of  the  poorhouse,  as  he 
could  not  live  for  six  months  on  bread  and  water  alone.  But  he  was 
a  prisoner,  and  he  had  been  a  prisoner  for  six  months  on  very 
limited  rations,  rather  than  degrade  himself  by  woiking.  He  was  a 
martyr  to  his  principles.  About  three  years  ago,  while  inspecting 
jails  and  poorhouses,  I  fell  in  with  the  state  high-school  inspector. 
As  we  were  both  approaching  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  our  state 
on  a  railway  train,  I  invited  him  to  spend  the  evening  with  me  in 
visiting  the  jail  and  seeing  and  studying  the  tramps,  whom  I  well 
knew  I  could  find  there  in  abundance;  and  I  noted  the  effect  of  a 
crowd  of  tramps  upon  a  thoughtful  and  sensitive  man,  accustomed 
to  meet  persons  ambitious  and  industrious,  mentally  and  physically. 
He  saw  in  the  jail  some  sixty  able-bodied  men  contented  to  merely 
exist,  having  the  form  of  humanity  but  having  little  of  the  spirit  of 
it.  It  was  a  question  which  he  tried  to  solve  for  several  days  after 
he  had  left  that  school  of  crime  and  vice,  but  which  he  confessed  to 
me  finally  he  could  not  solve. 

There  is  a  regular  organization  of  tramps  in  this  country  as  in 
England,  and  I  suppose  elsewhere.  Like  other  savage  societies 
they  have  certain  recognized  leaders.  Like  most  secret  societies 
they  have  signs  of  recognition  and  passwords,  and  they  also  have 
certain  marks  by  which  they  indicate  the  reception  given  them  in  the 


I  10  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

houses  which  they  have  visited,  so  that  other  tramps  who  follow  them 
may  profit  by  their  experience.  They  also  leave  their  cards  in  the 
police  stations  and  railway  depots  on  their  regular  routes  of  travel, 
something  like  this:  "  Chicago  Kid,  Nov.  30,  '92.  Going  east," 
"Jersey  Bill,  March  3.  Pointed  for  St.  Paul,"  I  have  seen  hundreds 
of  these  cards  on  the  walls  of  a  single  police  station,  accumulated  in 
one  season,  before  the  annual  house-cleaning  had  erased  them.  A 
few  years  ago  they  were  organized  in  bands  of  a  hundred  or  more, 
who  captured  freight  trains  and  terrorized  villages.  At  one  time  the 
militia  in  Wisconsin  were  called  out  and  did  picket  duty  on  the  border 
ofthe  state  at  Beloit,  while  the  hostile  camp-fires  of  hundreds  of  tramps 
reddened  the  evening  air  of  Illinois.  At  another  time  the  militia  of 
Madison  were  called  out  to  receive  a  freight  train  when  it  arrived,  and 
captured  the  tramps  who  had  captured  the  train,  and  the  jail  was 
filled  as  it  never  was  filled  before.  The  vigorous  action  of  the  sheriff 
at  the  time  in  compelling  the  tramps  to  work  gave  such  a  hard  name 
to  Madison  in  the  tramp  circles  that  for  years  it  was  shunned  by  the 
fraternity.  The  severe  laws  against  these  organized  mobs  of  tramps, 
and  their  enforcement  by  the  authorities,  broke  up  all  the  large  gangs 
in  Wisconsin  about  the  year  1880. 

After  having  seen  many  thousand  tramps  in  jails  and  poorhouses 
and  houses  of  correction,  after  having  interviewed  hundreds  of  them, 
after  having  talked  for  many  hours  with  officers  who  have  had  them 
under  their  charge,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  mass  of  the  tramps  consists 
of  men  who  are  trying  to  find  out  where  work  is  so  as  to  avoid 
making  its  acquaintance.  There  are  a  few  criminals  among  the 
tramps,  either  hiding  there  purposely  as  the  best  way  to  avoid  arrest, 
or  having  been  reduced  from  regular  burglars  or  pickpockets  to 
tramps  by  drink  or  by  too  inquisitive  police  officers.  There  are  also 
among  the  tramps  quite  a  few  drunkards,  who  have  become  so  broken 
down  by  drink  that  they  cannot  be  trusted  with  work  of  any  value.  But, 
as  a  rule,  criminals  are  not  tramps  ;  and,  as  a  rule,  drunkards  are  not 
tramps.  The  mass  of  the  tramps  are  simply  lazy  loafers  who  hate 
work  and  cleanliness.  They  are  savages  in  the  midst  of  civilization. 
At  best  they  are  persons  who  love  to  wander  from  a  restless' dispo- 
sition or  a  desire  of  novelty.  At  the  worst  they  are  enemies  of 
society,  ready  for  any  crime  that  may  come  handy,  but  restrained 
largely  by  cowardice  from  anything  but  minor  depredations. 

There  are  certain  classes  of  persons  who  are  on  the  border-line  of 
vagrancy  and  yet  are  not  genuine  tramps  in  the  strict  definition  of 
that  word. 


WRIGHT.  III 

No  one  considers  as  tramps  the  Winnebago  Indians,  who  still 
haunt  the  four  lakes  around  Madison,  as  their  ancestors  did,  even  if 
they  do  add  to  their  ancestral  diet  of  fish  and  muskrats  occasional 
cold  victuals  begged  from  the  white  man's  table,  and  if  they  do 
wander  from  one  place  to  another. 

Nor  are  the  gypsies,  whom  Borrow,  Leland  and  others  have 
glorified,  real  tramps,  although  they  lead  a  vagrant  life.  The  gypsies 
are  a  curious  survival,  in  the  midst  of  our  high  civilization,  ol  the 
lower  civilization  of  a  wandering  Hindoo  tribe. 

There  are  many  sailors  and  lumbermen  and  other  laboring  n.tn 
who  have  no  settled  home  or  are  far  away  from  home,  who  work 
when  they  can,  who  usually  spend  their  money  freely  (when  they 
get  it)  for  liquor  and  other  vices,  and  who  are  then  often  reduced  to 
all  kinds  of  shifts  to  live  till  they  can  get  work  again,  I  have  heard 
of  one  thrifty  fellow  who  regularly  deposited  his  wages  in  a  savings 
bank,  and,  as  soon  as  navigation  closed,  had  himself  sentenced  (or 
the  winter  to  the  House  of  Correction,  thus  compelling  Milwaukee 
county  to  furnish  him  good  food  and  clean  quarters  in  return  for 
light  work. 

It  is  scarcely  fair  to  put  this  class  of  laboring  men  with  the  real 
tramps,  because  they  merely  beg  at  private  houses  and  because  they 
are  willing  to  work.  Still,  any  measures  of  treatment  of  tramps, 
whether  by  public  or  private  authority,  will  be  sure  to  gel  some  of 
this  class,  and  in  all  our  plans  for  dealing  with  them  we  must  not 
forget  that  the  apparent  tramps  include  many  laboring  men  who  are 
not  real  tramps. 

Tramps  are  rarely  country-bred  boys;  they  are  mostly  the 
young  hoodlums  of  the  great  cities.  A  few  years  ago  I  found  sixty- 
eight  tramps  one  day  in  a  certain  jail,  herded  together  in  idleness 
and  what  a  tramp  would  consider  comfort.  Over  sixty  of  them 
appeared  to  be  between  fifteen  and  twenty-five  years  old.  I  ques- 
tioned each  one  where  he  came  from,  and  about  fifty  claimed  to  be 
from  Chicago.     I  judged  that  most  of  them  told  the  truth. 

Tramps  live  by  begging  and  stealing.  Although  charitable 
individuals  in  the  last  few  years  have  largely  learned  to  refuse 
money  or  food  to  able-bodied  beggars,  there  are  still  enough  people 
willing  to  give  at  least  food  to  make  it  easy  for  tramps  to  live  by 
begging.  In  the  summer  there  are  many  tramp  resorts  hidden  in 
the  woods  here  and  there,  to  which  the  plunder  of  the  hen-roost  and 
garden  are  brought,  as   well  as  the  proceeds  of  begging  and   an 


112  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

occasional  bottle  of  whiskey  lor  a  grand  picnic  reunion.  Within 
recent  years  it  is  noticeable  that  the  tramps  are  fairly  well  clothed, 
instead  of  going  in  rags,  as  they  are  still  depicted  in  the  comic 
papers,  which  are  always  behind  the  times  in  their  jokes.  This  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  cheap  clothing-houses  have  pushed  their 
goods  into  the  country  stores,  which  are  not  well  guarded  at  night. 
Thus  the  ready-made  clothing  suit  which  began  in  a  sweating-shop 
in  the  city  sometimes  ends  by  clothing  a  tramp  in    the   country. 

Tramps  love  to  wander.  In  the  summer,  tramps  follow  the  fashion 
and  take  long  tours  of  the  country.  In  winter,  they  partly  go  south 
with  other  northern  tourists,  partly  they  crowd  into  the  great  cities, 
and  partly  they  find  refuge  in  jails  and  poorhouses  all  over  the 
country.  In  traveling,  the  tramps  almost  invariably  follow  the  main 
lines  of  railroads.  In  the  winter,  those  tramps  who  remain  north  are 
driven  for  shelter  to  various  public  institutions.  They  apply  in 
large  numbers  for  admittance  to  the  police  stations  of  the  cities, 
where  they  stay  night  after  night  in  places  provided  for  them  espec- 
ially, until  warned  to  move  on,  when  they  try  some  other  police 
station  in  the  same  city,  unless  committed  to  the  House  of  Correc- 
tion ;  in  which  case  the  comfortable  quarters  and  good  food  recon- 
cile them  in  a  measure  to  the  very  moderate  amount  of  work  required 
of  them.  In  the  country  they  pass  from  one  county-seat  or  city  to 
another,  applying  for  admittance,  and  being  received  in  this  or  that  jail 
or  police  station  very  much  according  to  the  discretion  of  the  local 
magistrates  and  officers. 

The  fact  that  the  tramps  have  become  the  occasion  of  a  species  of 
official  plunder,  under  which  the  people  are  quite  restive,  has  kept 
this  question  before  the  public  mind,  and  is  probably  the  occasion  of 
this  topic  being  selected  for  discussion  here  and  now.  The  waste  of 
public  money  in  this  way  by  the  counties  and  cities  of  Wisconsin 
runs  from  $50,000  to  $100,000  a  year.  It  is  less  now  than  it  was, 
because  public  opinion  has  really  had  some  effect  upon  the  officers, 
and  because  several  of  the  counties  which  were  most  burdened  have 
salaried  their  sheriffs. 

The  root  of  the  whole  difficulty  is  in  the  foolish  system  of  paying 
fees  instead  of  salaries.  The  tramp  problem  as  a  serious  burden 
upon  the  taxes  would  disappear  at  once  if  sheriffs  and  justices  of  the 
peace  were  paid  no  fees. 

It  can  scarcely  be  expected  of  a  sheriff,  who  is  elected  for  two 
years  and  is  then  ineligible  for  re-election,  and  who  is  paid  by  fees. 


WRIGHT.  113 

that  he  should  refuse  to  arrest  tramps  when  they  ask  to  be  arrested, 
or  when  citizens  ask  their  arrest  to  get  rid  of  the  danger  of  having 
tramps  around.  It  can  easily  be  seen  that  some  sheriffs  and  justices 
of  the  peace  would  be  tempted  to  form  a  virtual  conspiracy  to  rob 
the  public  by  sentencing  tramps  for  one  day  each,  and  by  making 
it  so  pleasant  for  the  tramps  that  they  will  pass  the  word  around  to 
their  fellows  to  call  that  way.  It  could  hardly  be  expected  that  an 
average  officer  would  take  vigorous  measures  to  drive  away  such 
profitable  guests.  And  the  few  sheriffs  who  have  worked  efficiently, 
for  the  interests  of  their  constituents  at  the  expense  of  their  own 
pockets  deserve  high  commendation.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  fee 
system  demoralizes  all  concerned.  If  the  sheriff  wishes  to  drive 
away  tramps,  he  cannot  oppose  too  strenuousl}'  the  justices  of  the 
peace  and  the  various  village  marshals,  who  all  get  a  little  of  the 
plunder.  And  many  of  the  members  of  the  county  board  hope  to  be 
themselves  elected  sheriff  some  time,  and  therefore  do  not  object  too 
loudly  to  the  bills  that  are  presented,  especially  as  they  are  all  strictly 
legal  bills.  The  justices  of  the  peace  and  the  marshals  also  are  apt 
to  remember  a  sheriff  or  a  member  of  the  county  board  who  is  too 
particular,  and  when  he  comes  up  for  some  office  they  will  "  knife 
him."  All  which  shows  that  the  fee  system  cannot  be  cut  off  by 
inches  but  must  be  destroyed  as  a  whole. 

Many  counties  in  Wisconsin  have  attempted  to  discourage  tramps 
by  providing  work  for  them  in  connection  with  the  jail.  The  idea 
oflabor  for  tramps  is  correct,  but  the  execution  of  it  by  sheriffs  and 
their  deputies  is  ineffective.  A  sheriff  who  is  paid  by  fees  is  not  likely 
to  discourage  tramps.  He  may  not  take  any  pains  to  encourage 
them;  indeed,  I  think  few  sheriffs  nowadays  do  so.  But  it  is  too 
much  to  expect  of  human  nature  that  a  sheriff  shall  take  special 
pains  to  work  directly  against  his  own  interests.  In  several  cases  the 
county  board  has  employed  a  guard  over  the  tramps  while  at  work, 
but  the  guard  has  usually  discovered  very  soon  that  he  had  better 
be  on  good  terms  with  the  sheriff  than  with  the  county  board.  And 
in.  fact  the  foolish  economy  of  county  boards  usually  leads  to  the 
employment  of  such  cheap  help  for  this  work  as  to  defeat  its  own 
object,  by  making  the  guard  as  ridiculous  to  the  tramps  themselves 
as  is  a  country  scarecrow  to  a  flock  of  blackbirds. 

Another  ineffective  remedy  which  has  been  tried  is  the  reduction 
of  the  fees  in  all  tramp  cases  from  about  five  dollars  to  one  dollar. 
When  that  bill  was  before  the  legislature  I  warned  the  committee 


114  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

that  it  would  be  ineffective  and-  showed  them  why.  The  result 
has  verified  my  predictions.  The  returns  show  that  fewer  tramps 
have  been  committed  to  jail  as  such,  but  that  there  has  been  an 
alarming  increase  of  drunkenness  and  other  petty  crimes.  One 
sheriff  reported  to  me  in  one  year  72  persons  sentenced  to  jail  for 
"  indecent  exposure  of  the  person."  A  tramp  is  very  accommo- 
datinor  to  an  officer  who  is  accommodating  to  him.  He  will  plead 
guilty  to  any  charge  the  sheriff  brings  against  him,  so  that  he  can 
get  into  jail,  but  he  is  very  careful  not  to  plead  guilty  to  a  state  prison 
charge.  I  was  told  that,  after  a  revolution  in  one  of  our  counties, 
so  that  tramps  were  no  longer  encouraged  at  the  jail,  a  fellow  coolly 
took  a  coat  from  the  display  in  front  of  a  clothing-store  and  walked 
along  to  the  next  corner,  where  he  stopped  and,  with  a  disappointed 
look,  hailed  the  first-comer  with  the  remark,  "  Say,  stranger,  hain't 
you  got  no  police  in  this  town?  "  All  of  which  shows  that  tramping 
may  be  abolished  in  official  reports  and  still  exist  in  full  vigor  in 
reality. 

Amid  a  collection  of  unsuccessful  experiments  at  suppressing 
vagrancy,  of  which  I  have  given  only  Wisconsin  cases,  there  have 
been  a  few  successful  efforts,  which  I  will  name.  A  little  over  a 
hundred  years  ago,  Benjamin  Thompson,  a  native  of  Massachusetts, 
became  Count  Rumford  and  prime  minister  of  the  King  of  Bavaria. 
Being  given  absolute  power  over  this  subject,  he  provided  factories 
and  workhouses,  and  on  a  given  day  arrested  every  beggar  and 
vagrant  in  the  kingdom  and  put  them  at  work  at  such  things  as  they 
were  capable  of  doing.  He  paid  them  according  to  the  value  of  their 
work,  encouraging  them  in  every  way  not  only  to  earn  something 
by  honest  labor,  but  also  to  learn  how  to  perform  skilled  labor  at  a 
higher  rate  of  pay.  By  using  force  on  the  one  hand  and  inspiring 
hope  on  the  other,  he  converted  the  swarms  of  vagrants  and  beggars, 
with  which  the  kingdom  had  been  infested,  into  industrious  and  self- 
supporting  citizens.  At  the  present  time  the  kingdom  of  Prussia  has 
settled  a  large  number  of  vagrants  upon  the  waste  lands  of  Westpha- 
lia. They  are  held  under  commitment  for  a  time,  but  are  encouraged 
to  self-support,  and  given  freedom  as  soon  as  they  can  be  trusted. 
The  scheme  which  Booth,  the  head  of  the  Salvation  Army.proposed  . 
in  his  book,  "  In  Darkest  England,"  although  it  has  had  only  a  year's 
trial,  is  already  working  very  successfully,  and  a  large  number  of 
vagrants  and  drunkards  and  other  broken-down  wrecks  of  humanity 
have  already  been  rescued  from  the  slums  of  London  and  are  earn- 


WRIGHT.  115 

ing  an  honest  living  and  are  nearly  if  not  quite  self-supporting.  In 
the  United  States,  the  state  of  Connecticut,  although  close  by  the 
great  city  of  New  York,  which  sends  out  its  swarms  of  tramps  every 
summer,  has  for  many  years  prevented  the  tramps  from  coming  near 
its  border  by  sentence  to  a  state  workhouse.  The  superintendent 
of  the  Industrial  School  for  Girls  told  me  with  great  delight  how  the 
father  of  one  of  his  charges,  who  was  a  tramp,  when  he  came  to  visit 
his  daughter,  was  obliged  to  disguise  himself  as  an  honest  man  in 
order  to  avoid  arrest  and  imprisonment.  In  Indianapolis  and  other 
cities  the  provident  wood-yard,  by  offering  meals  and  lodging  for  a 
certain  definite  amount  of  labor,  has  sifted  out  all  the  vagrants  who 
were  at  all  willing  to  work,  and  left  those  who  were  either  persist- 
ently lazy  or  vicious  to  be  sentenced  toj;he  House  of  Correction. 

These  examples  in  actual  experience  show  that  the  tramp  problem 
is  not  insoluble.  Any  agency,  public  or  private,  which  will  offer 
decent  board  and  lodging  in  return  for  a  fair  amount  of  work  is  a 
true  charity  for  the  homeless  but  industrious  poor.  The  labor  test 
will  sift  out  the  genuine  tramps  from  the  destitute  workers.  Along 
with  the  labor  test  necessarily  goes  the  test  of  cleanliness.  No  insti- 
tution but  a  jailor  police  station  can  afford  to  keep  such  dirty  lodgers 
as  many  tramps  are,  without  using  a  bathroom  and  a  room  in  which 
clothing  is  steamed.  Any  agency,  public  or  private,  which  will 
furnish  food,  shelter  and  cleanliness  in  return  for  unskilled  labor 
will  relieve  the  public  of  the  need  of  giving  food,  clothes  or  money  10 
tramps.  But  to  reach  the  cases  of  the  genuine  tramps,  legal  meas- 
ures only  will  suffice,  because  the  genuine  trampwill  not  work  unless 
compelled  to  do  so. 

One  plan  which  has  been  proposed  for  Wisconsin  is  that  of  a  state 
workhouse.  Under  proper  conditions,  this  plan  can  be  made 
effective,  as  the  experience  of  Connecticut  shows.  But  the  experi- 
ence of  Massachusetts  also  shows  that,  where  the  length  of  sentences 
and  the  election  between  the  state  workhouse  and  a  local  prison  is 
left  optional  with  the  local  magistrates,  it  will  work  about  like  all 
other  kinds  of  local  option.  In  some  towns  in  Massachusetts  the 
magistrates  sentence  tramps  for  ninety  days  to  the  state  workhouse, 
and  the  tramps  of  course  shun  those  towns;  in  other  towns  the  mag- 
istrates are  more  lenient  to  the  tramps,  or  more  anxious  for  fees  for 
themselves,  and  the  tramps  patronize  those  towns. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  our  experience  with  tramps  appearing  on 
the  records  charged  with   drunkenness,  with  petty   larceny,    with 


Il6  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OE  PAUPERISM. 

assault  and  battery,  or  with  indecent  exposure  of  the  person.  This 
shows  how  easy  it  is  to  evade  the  law  providing  a  state  workhouse, 
if  that  workhouse  is  for  tramps  only.  The  way  to  avoid  this  is  to 
have  all  sentences  for  misdemeanors  executed  in  the  state  workhouse 
and  to  abolish  the  foolish  system  of  sentencing  for  very  short  terms. 
There  are  excellent  reasons  for  establishing  a  state  workhouse  for 
misdemeanants,  entirely  aside  from  the  tramp  question.  In  Michigan 
the  state  workhouse  has  been  tried  for  misdemeanants  with  good  suc- 
cess. It  is  nearly  self-supporting,  without  convict  labor,  and  it  is  not 
a  school  of  vice  and  crime,  as  other  jails  are,  to  which  misdemeanants 
are  sentenced.  Such  a  state  workhouse  ought  to  have  its  prisoners 
sentenced  for  one  or  two  years,  unless  sboner  discharged,  with  the 
understanding  that  all  first  ^offenders  shall  be  discharged  in  about 
three  months,  but  that  old  hands  shall  be  kept  longer.  The  Bertillon 
system  of  identification  of  criminals  will  detect  professional  criminals 
nnd  habitual  tramps,  who  should  be  kept  much  longer,  to  protect 
society  and  to  weary  them  of  Wisconsin  justice,  so  that  when 
discharged  they  shall  seek  "  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new." 

But  I  am  convinced  that  a  yet  greater  good  can  be  done  if  we  are 
only  willing  to  undertake  it.  The  best  jail  I  ever  visited  (not  in  ihe 
architecture,  but  in  its  management)  is  the  jail  at  Media,  Delaware 
county,  Pennsylvania.  The  Quakers  are  the  original  prison  reformers, 
and  the  Quaker  end  of  Pennsylvania  has  the  best  managed  state 
prison  and  the  best  managed  county  jails  in  the  United  States.  The 
Delaware  county  jail  is  not  controlled  by  the  sheriff,  but  by  a  jailor 
who  is  appointed  by  a  board  of  directors,  and  who  is  paid  a  salary 
and  no  fees.  The  jail  is  managed  on  the  public  account  plan.  Every 
prisoner  labors  in  his  own  cell,  and  may  earn  something  by  a  proper 
amount  of  work.  As  no  tobacco  is  furnished  free,  all  the  prisoners, 
whether  required  by  law  or  not,  willingly  labor  in  order  to  earii  their 
tobacco.  There  being  no  fees,  the  jail  is  managed  in  the  interests  of 
the  people.  Tramps  shun  this  jail,  although  near  a  large  city.  All 
the  jails  in  Canada  are  governed  by  jailors  appointed  by  the  pro- 
vincial governments,  and  are  paid  salaries,  and  tramps  are  not 
numerous  in  Canada. 

My  remedy  for  the  tramp  problem  would  be  to  adopt  the  Quaker 
idea  of  jail  management.  This  will  also  be  a  remedy  for  all  the 
various  difficulties  now  surrounding  the  jails,  the  most  absurdly 
managed  and  most  dangerous  part  of  our  whole  prison  system. 

This  plan  is  not  an  ideally  perfect  plan,  but  it  is  one  which  could 
be  carried  out  practically.     An  ideally  perfect  system  could  only  be 


RING.  117 

attained  by  destroying  our  local  self-government,  which  would  be 
too  high  a  price  to  pay  for  even  an  ideal  prison  system.  The  evils 
of  centralization  might  prove  in  the  end  to  be  greater  than  the  evils 
of  local  self-government. 

The  tramp  is  one  portion  of  the  debris  of  our  civilization.  All  the 
various  forms  of  crime  and  pauperism  link  in  with  the  tramp  ques- 
tion. Whatever  is  done  wisely  in  one  line  will  irresistibly  aid  every- 
thing else.  Getting  rid  of  tramps  from  one  state  will  tone  up  the 
administration  of  justice  in  petty  cases  ;  it  will  prevent  our  jails  being 
polluted  and  overcrowded  by  the  presence  of  large  numbers  of 
uncleanly  vagrants ;  it  will  relieve  our  poorhouses  and  our  insane 
asylums  of  many  undesirable  inmates;  it  will  reduce  the  criminal 
expenses  of  many  counties;  it  will  relieve  railroad  employees  of 
much  trouble  and  some  risk ;  it  will  banish  the  annoyance  and  fear 
which  tramps  have  brought  to  many  homes  in  the  country  ;  it  will 
save  the  people  from  the  demoralizing  spectacle  of  idle  loafers  in 
the  midst  of  an  industrial  civilization,  and  of  lawless  vagrants  in  the 
midst  of  a  law-abiding  population.  Tramps  may  be  driven  away, 
which  is  a  gain  to  ourselves,  or  they  may  be  reformed,  which  is  a 
gain  to  humanity.  But  to  do  either,  we  must  reorganize  in  a  large 
measure  our  defective  machinery  for  the  treatment  of  criminals, 
which  is  a  gain  both  to  ourselves  and  to  humanity. 


MUNICIPAL  PROVISION  FOR  SHELTER  OF  HOMELESS 

POOR  IN  BOSTON—TEMPORARY  HOME  FOR 

WOMEN  AND  CHILDREN— WAYFARERS' 

LODGE  AND  WOODYARD  FOR  MEN. 

THOMAS   F.  RING,  BOSTON. 

My  theme  is  the  municipal  provision  made  by  Boston  for  the 
temporary  relief  of  the  immediate  needs  of  the  transient  and  casual 
poor,  who,  penniless,  friendless  and  homeless,  ask  for  a  meal  or  a 
night's  lodging  ;  it  does  not  extend  to  the  poor  admitted  to  the 
almshouses  or  hospitals. 

Adjacent  to  the  Charity  Building  in  Boston,  where  nearly  all  the 
public  and  private  relief  agencies  and  societies  have  their  offices,  is  a 


Il8  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

large  brick  building  known  as  the  Temporary  Home  for  Women  and 
Children,  owned  and  maintained  by  the  city  of  Boston  and  under 
the  charge  of  the  overseers  of  the  poor. 

Here,  women  and  children,  meaning  little  children,  if  of  the  male 
sex,  are  provided  with  beds,  good  food  and  shelter  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  time,  according  to  their  needs.  In  actual  experience  the 
term  has  been  from  part  of  a  day  to  even  six  weeks.  A  nursery 
department  is  provided  for  babies  and  for  mc?thers  with  babies. 
The  whole  number  of  admissions  for  the  year  1892  is  stated  as  3,564 
(2,703  women  and  861  children),  but  the  number  of  different  indi- 
viduals who  entered  was  only  2,023  (1.283  women  and  740  children), 
some  of  course  entering  more  than  once  during  the  period.  Women 
may  have  meals  and  lodging  at  the  home  while  searching  for  employ- 
ment, but  are  required  to  do  some  house-work  during  their  stay. 
Meals  are  given  gratis  to  women  who  apply  for  them. 

The  average  daily  population  of  the  home  is  30  ;  some  infants 
are  born  in  the  house  (17  last  year),  but  the  rule  is  to  obtain  accom- 
modations elsewhere  for  lying-in  cases  when  it  is  practicable  to  do 
so.  Lost  children  are  kept  until  claimed  by  relatives  or  friends. 
370  children  came  with  their  mothers  to  this  house  in  1893;  127 
were  stated  to  be  illegitimate. 

W/iaf  can  be  said  of  the  Lives  of  the  Wovien  who  ask  for  Shelter  ? 

One-half  are  known  to  be  of  the  class  that  spend  much  of  their 
time  in  the  almshouses,  much  of  their  time  in  the  penal  institutions, 
with  a  brief  freedom  among  dissipated  companions  while  in  the  city. 

It  is  purely  a  matter  of  accident  with  them  where  they  go  next  ; 
it  may  be  to  the  Island  for  a  term  of  imprisonment,  it  may  be  to  the 
almshouse,  where  they  may  stay  practically  as  long  or  as  short  a 
time  as  they  wish,  being  discharged  on  their  own  application,  unless 
the  medical  officer  at  the  almshouse  objects  in  the  interest  of  public 
health. 

A  second  class  is  made  up  from  women-servants  who  have  too 
strong  a  liking  for  liquor,  who  cannot  or  do  not  remain  long  in  a 
situation,  and  have  no  place  to  go  while  out  of  employment. 

Female  paupers  waiting  investigation  of  their  legal  standing  or 
other  circumstances  are  lodged  here,  pending  definite  action  of  the 
city  or  state  relief  officers. 

Sometimes  a  poor,  unfortunate  girl,  thrust  into  the  street  in  the 
hour  of  her  trial,  asks  for  a  bed  and  is  tenderly  carried  through  her 
confinement. 


RING. 


119 


Of  the  rest,  little  is  known  ;  they  come  for  a  meal  or  a  lodging  and 
on  the  morrow  "move  on,"  God  knows  where;  they  are  not  resi- 
dents of  the  city,  they  have  no  acquaintances  among  us,  and  are 
going  somewhere  in  search  of  employment  or  of  friends. 

In  this  charity,  Boston  expended  in  1892,  $7,369.63,  and  it  was  for 
the  protection  of  homeless  women  and  little  children  that  Boston's 
first  shelter  was  provided. 

Wayfaj^ers^  Lodge  and  Woodyard  for  Men. 

When  it  became  known  that  women  were  given  meals  free  at  the 
Temporary  Home,  numbers  of  men  out  of  employment  applied  daily 
for  meals  also;  they  were  served,  upon  condition  that  they  first 
made  compensation  by  sawing  or  splitting  wood,  of  which  a  large 
quantity  thoughtfully  provided  was  conspicuously  heaped  in  the 
yard  of  the  house. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  kindling  wood  business,  afterwards 
transferred  to  and  still  carried  on  by  the  Wayfarers'  Lodge  and  Wood- 
yard  owned  by  the  city.  The  money  to  pay  for  the  relatively  small 
stock  of  wood  and  saws  for  the  experimental  yard  at  the  Temporary 
Home  was  furnished  by  public-spirited  overseers  from  their  own 
pockets,  since  the  city  solicitor  ruled  that  money  for  a  speculative 
enterprise  could  not  be  drawn  from  the  city  treasury.  The  Lodge 
since  that  time  has  paid  into  the  city  treasury  $21,000  from  the 
profits  of  the  business ;  the  payment,  doubtless,  is  a  legal  transac- 
tion, for  no  objection  has  been  made  so  far  by  the  law  officers  of 
the  city. 

The  tramp,  as  a  species,  first  became  known  in  this  country  in  the 
decade  following  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  No  marauding  invaders 
were  more  feared  in  the  thinly  settled  country  places  than  were  the 
tramps. 

In  the  cities  they  were  rather  a  nuisance  than  a  danger,  for  police 
control  awed  them  into  a  sneaking  obscurity.  They  congregated  at 
nightfall  about  the  police  stations,  and  were  admitted  to  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  cells,  which  they  shared  with  the  drunken  men  arrested 
on  the  street. 

One  can  judge  of  the  number  of  such  idlers  when  he  reads  that 
in  1877,  the  year  before  the  Lodge  was  opened,  the  police  stations  of 
Boston  furnished  55,973  lodgings  to  men  and  6,746  to  women.  No 
decent  provision  could  be  made  for  the  miserable  wretches,  they 
were  not  given  food  nor  a  chance  to  wash,  but  at  daybreak  turned 


120  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

into  the  street  to  beg  or  steal  a  breakfast  somewhere.  The  police 
stations  were  not  designed  for  such  a  swarm  of  human  beings,  and 
the  atmosphere  was  next  to  poison  for  officers  or  inmates. 

Acting  under  the  provisions  of  a  law  passed  by  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  of  1875,  the  overseers  of  the  poor  of  Boston  in  1877 
applied  to  the  city  for  the  use  of  a  schoolhouse  on  Hawkins  street, 
then  badly  damaged  by  fire  and  unoccupied,  that  they  might  carry 
out  the  provisions  of  the  law  enabling  overseers  of  the  poor  to 
require  some  labor  from  persons  applying  for  food  or  shelter.  The 
city  council  promptly  voted  to  supply  a  house  and  other  means,  and- 
I  had  the  honor,  as  a  member  of  the  board,  to  be  one  of  the  committee 
to  organize  and  manage  the  new  Lodge  and  Woodyard,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  same  committee  for  nine  years,  until  I  declined  a 
fourth  term  on  the  board. 

Our  committee  studied  the  situation  carefully,  took  advice  from 
the  police,  read  what  they  could  find  printed  on  the  subject,  and 
opened  the  Wayfarers'  Lodge  (a  name  suggested  by  Mr.  T.  C. 
Amory,  the  chairman  of  the  committee)  in  1878. 

A  leading  purpose  was  to  get  rid  of  many  of  the  tramps  infesting 
the  city,  by  closing  the  police  stations  against  lodgers,  compelling 
all  applicants  for  lodgings  to  call  at  the  police  stations  for  caids  on 
the  Lodge,  and  retaining  the  applicant  at  the  station  if  he  were  noisy 
or  intoxicated,  giving  cards  only  to  men  who  appeared  to  be  sober. 

On  arriving  at  the  Lodge,  the  applicant  presents  his  card  of 
admission,  is  asked  his  name,  age,  occupation,  birthplace,  and 
whether  married  or  single.  A  striking  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
institution  of  matrimony  is  found  in  the  fact  that  very  seldom  is  a 
married  man  a  tramp;  the  tramp  has  only  himself  to  care  for,  and 
he  seems  to  take  very  poor  care  of  that.  With  us  he  is  becoming 
more  of  a  rarity  ;  speed  the  day  when  he  shall  be  extinct,  and  the 
last  specimen  of  the  race,  after  repenting  oi  his  sins  and  making  an 
edifying  death,  may  atone  for  all  his  offenses  in  a  dry  purgatory  in 
a  glass  case  in  the  ethnological  department  of  the  Museum  at 
Harvard  University. 

Our  applicant,  after  registry  is  completed,  is  given  a  ticket  bear- 
ing a  number,  which  is  his  number  while  in  the  house.  He  descends 
to  the  basement,  where  he  completely  disrobes;  I  have  seen  one 
tramp  take  off  four  pairs  of  trousers,  peeling  like  an  onion.  The 
clothes  are  tied  up  in  a  bundle  and  placed  for  an  hour  or  so  subject 
to  the  action  of  dry  steam,  thoroughly  disinfecting  them  and  destroy- 


RING.  121 

ing  all  germs  of  vermin  or  perhaps  disease.  About  ten  thousand 
suits  of  clothes  are  so  treated  annually,  certainly  a  great  sanitary 
advantage  to  the  general  public.  The  clothes  shaken  out  of  ihe 
bundle  are  hung  on  a  hook  numbered  the  same  as  the  man's  ticket, 
and  dry  in  a  few  minutes,  with  no  apparent  damage  to  the  garments. 
The  lodger  in  the  meantime  has  been  through  a  warm  bath^  his  hair 
drenched  with  a  special  preparation,  he  has  taken  a  clean  nij^ht 
shirt,  and  gone  up  to  the  dormitory,  where  he  has  a  neat  cot  bed  to 
himself.  There  are  three  rooms  with  fifty  cots  in  each,  and  some 
smaller  rooms  with  more  cots  ready  for  use.  From  forty  to  one 
hundred  and  seventy  men  sleep  here  every  night  in  the  year.  Gas 
burns  low  in  the  rooms ;  closets  are  on  each  floor  for  use  of  the  men  ; 
there  is  always  peace  in  the  house.  The  men,  after  the  unaccus- 
tomed luxury  of  a  warm  bath  and  a  fresh,  clean  night  robe,  sleep 
soundly  until  called  at  six  in  the  morning,  when  they  go  down  and 
dress,  then  pass  into  the  yard  covered  by  a  roof,  where  each  man 
finds  a  foot  of  wood  and  a  saw  waiting  for  him.  When  he  has 
finished  the  task  he  gets  a  ticket  admitting  him  to  breakfast.  Some 
men  can  do  the  work  in  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  some  take  two 
hours;  but  unless  a  man  is  sick  he  must  do  the  work  before  he  can 
have  any  breakfast.  By  nine  o'clock  most  of  the  men  are  gone,  and 
the  yard  is  empty  until  the  men  come  in  to  work  an  hour  for  their 
dinner. 

The  cost  of  the  Lodge  in  1892  was  $9,436.68  (no  rent  for  the  use 
of  the  building  is  charged  by  the  city),  32,611  lodgings  were  fur- 
nished, and  71,549  meals  given.  The  cost  of  the  materials  used 
for  the  table  makes  the  meals  average  six  cents  each  man.  Here  is 
the  menu:  Soup  (quart  bowl),  stewed  beef,  bread,  potatoes,  Boston 
baked  beans  on  Sundays,  fish  chowder  on  Fridays,  tea,  milk  and 
sugar  at  all  the  suppers.  A  man  may  suit  himself  as  to  the  quantity 
he  wishe^  to  eat.  No  one  watches  him.  He  can  take  his  time  and 
eat  what  he  wishes.  Counting  the  cost  of  the  Lodge  last  year  at 
$9,400  and  the  lodgings  at  32,000,  the  daily  cost  of  a  lodging  is  thirty 
cents,  including  meals.  Each  lodger  could,  if  space  were  available 
(and  not  half  the  needed  space  is  provided),  saw  and  split  a  foot  of 
wood,  advancing  the  commercial  value  of  the  same  twenty-five  cents, 
and  thus  almost  cover  the  whole  cost  of  his  keeping  for  the  day. 

But  for  want  of  space  the  men  are  not  fully  employed  at  produc- 
tive labor,  some  are  piling  wood  or  doing  something  to  keep  them 
moving,  so  that  the  result  is  that  the  labor  of  all  the  men  produces 


122  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

about  one-third  of  the  cost  of  the  Lodge.  That,  placed  on  the  basis 
of  one  day,  means  that  it  costs  the  city  thirty  cents  a  day,  and  the 
lodger  returns  ten  cents  a  day  by  his  labor. 

On  the  wharf,  however,  the  men  who  come  during  the  day  for 
meals  are  employed,  being  given  a  meal  ticket  on  the  completion  of 
their  task.  About  one-third  of  all  the  wood  prepared  is  sawed  and 
split  on  the  wharf  by  the  dinner  men,  as  they  are  called,  to  distin- 
guish them  from  the  lodgers. 

An  attempt  was  made  sometime  ago  to  try  a  plan  that  had  worked 
well  in  Providence,  namely,  to  employ  all  comers  who  wanted  money 
at  the  rate  of  fifty  cents  a  day  in  cash  and  their  meals  while  at  work, 
but  it  was  found  the  men  so  employed  mixed  themselves  with  the 
tramps  and  did  no  more  work  than  they  could  avoid  doing;  the  results, 
as  far  as  they  could  be  traced,  were  of  no  tangible  value,  and  the 
experiment  under  the  conditions  was  deemed  a  failure  and  was  discon- 
tinued. 

A  wharf  is  hired  for  the  receipt  of  cargoes  of  wood  from  vessels, 
and  if  the  place  were  owned  by  the  city  and  the  men  were  lodged 
there,  a  much  larger  return  would  be  secured  from  the  labor  than  is 
,  possible  now.  The  experiment  was  tried  of  marching  lodgers  from 
the  Wayfarers'  Lodge  to  the  wharf,  to  do  their  work  there  before 
breakfast,  but  the  men  scattered  in  all  directions  on  coming  out  from 
the  yard.  True,  it  is  possible  to  have  police  escort,  but  a  four 
dollar  policeman  to  a  ten-cent  tramp  would  not  be  a  profitable  outlay 
for  the  overseers. 

Seven  years  ago  I  prepared  a  paper  on  this  Wayfarers'  Lodge, 
and  since  beginning  the  present  sketch  I  have  read  over  my  notes 
and  I  am  struck  with  the  great  changes  noticeable  in  the  classes  that 
now  come  to  the  Lodge  compared  with  the  men  as  a  whole  who 
lodged  in  the  house  when  it  was  first  opened  in  1878. 

The  worst  class,  the  stowaways  from  the  foreign  steamers,  do  not 
come  at  all.  A  law  pissed  or  enforced  since  forbids  the  landing  of 
stowaways. 

Men  claiming  to  be  strikers  or  traveling  in  search  of  work  do  not 
apply  so  often;  either  they  have  money  and  go  elsewhere,  or  there 
are  fewer  looking  in  this  way  for  employment. 

The  tramp  avoids  the  Lodge  ;  only  dire  necessity  compels  him  to 
ask  a  shelter  or  a  meal  that  must  be  paid  for  in  labor.  The  cheap 
lodging-houses,  of  which  Boston  has  far  too  many  for  its  peace,  are 
the  places  where  he  can  find  congenial  company  and  an  occasional. 


RING.  123 

but  welcome  drink.  As  long  as  he  can  steal,  or  rob  a  drunken 
passer  on  the  street,  he  will  not  face  the  Lodge.  These  men  spend 
their  winters  in  ease  at  the  almshouse,  from  which  they  are  discharged 
on  their  own  application  in  the  spring;  then  they  manage  to  go  to 
some  penal  institution  for  awhile  ;  when  cold  weather  approaches 
they  are  snug  in  the  almshouse  again. 

As  a  means  of  securing  conviction  of  some  of  the  idle  vagrants,  the 
Lodge  has  failed  completely  to  meet  the  expectation  of  the  first  com- 
mittee. The  discouragement  thrown  by  a  judge  on  the  first  good 
case  presented  made  the  superintendent  feel  that  it  was  wasting  time 
to  do  anything  further;  he  simply  refuses  to  let  the  vagrant  in  if  he 
recognizes  him  as  one  who  has  made  trouble,  and  so  dismisses  the 
matter. 

The  largest  of  any  distinct  class  now  at  the  Lodge  are  railroad 
laborers,  employed  most  of  the  year  at  construction  works. 
When  the  winter  stops  operations  they  spend  carelessly  what  they 
have  saved,  and  those  who  have  no  acquaintances  or  friends  come  to 
the  Lodge  for  a  few  days  (three  days  is  the  limit).  Ask  any  one  of 
them  why  he  came  to  the  Lodge  and  he  will  tell  you  that  he  was 
foolish  with  his  money  when  he  had  it,  but  hopes  soon  to  be  at 
work  again. 

Summing  it  all  up:  the  Wayfarers'  Lodge  is  useful  to  the  city  of 
Boston.  It  is  not  claimed  that  all  the  men  cut  of  work  can  find 
employment  here,  or  that  all  without  means  to  pay  for  a  lodging  can 
be  provided  for,  but  it  does  this  much,  it  contributes  largely  towards 
the  health  and  safety  of  the  lodgers  under  its  roof  It  offers  a  fair 
test  of  the  sincerity  and  capacity  of  the  man  who  says  he  is  willing 
to  work,  for  many  good  places  for  laborers  have  been  found  by  the 
Lodge. 

It  takes  no  payment  in  money  from  a  lodger,  it  supposes  the 
applicant  to  be  without  money.  All  who  come  are  humanely  treated, 
and  when  they  leave  they  feel  that  they  have  earned  the  cost  of  their 
food  and  shelter  and  are  in  debt  to  no  one,  except  so  far  as  to  thank 
the  Christian  instinct  ingrained  in  our  national  life,  which  has  pro- 
vided a  means  by  which  a  poor  man  may  without  shame  eat  the 
bread  set  before  him,  for  he  has  already  done  all  that  was  asked  from 
him  in  return  for  it. 


124  PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

FREE  PUBLIC   EMPLOYMENT   OFFICES  IN  OHIO.     AN 
EXPERIMENT  IN  SOCIALISTIC  LEGISLATION. 

p.  W.  AYRES,  GENERAL  SECRETARY  OF  ASSOCIATED  CHARITIES, 

CINCINNATI,  OHIO. 

'  Free  public  employment  offices,  established  by  the  state  of  Ohio 
in  five  of  its  largest  cities,  are  certainly  a  unique  experiment.  Tht 
legislation  establishing  these  offices  was  new  and  bold.  It  has 
aroused  peculiar  interest,  because  it  undertakes  to  deal  in  some 
measure  with  the  relation  of  the  state  to  industrial  action,  and  at  the 
same  time  is  a  step  toward  government  control,  the  end  of  which  was 
not  easily  seen  when  the  bill  passed. 

The  offices  have  been  in  operation  a  little  less  than  three  years. 
It  is,  therefore,  too  soon  to  estimate  their  final  value. 

The  following  sketch  will  endeavor  to  show  to  what  extent  the 
offices  have  proved  useful  to  laborers,  notwithstanding  the  political 
changes  in  management,  and  to  what  extent  they  have  failed  to  carry 
out  the  original  ideals  of  those  who  framed  the  bill. 

The  Municipal  Labor  Congress  of  Cincinnati,  an  organization 
composed  of  all  the  trade  and  labor  unions  in  that  city,  started  the 
agitation  in  favor  of  free  public  employment  offices  to  be  established 
by  the  state  government.  The  bill,  as  introduced  into  the  state 
legislature  during  the  winter  of  1889-90,  made  the  employment 
offices  a  branch  of  the  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  fixed  the 
salaries  of  superintendents  and  clerks,  and  placed  the  expense  upon 
the  state.  Senator  M.  T.  Corcoran  of  Cincinnati,  who  introduced 
the  bill,  fought  hard  to  have  it  passed  in  its  original  form.  The 
shrewd  farmer  legislator,  however,  proved  too  much  in  this  case  for 
the  city  representative  of  labor,  and  refused  to  pay  from  the  state 
treasury  the  salaries  of  officials,  the  benefit  of  whose  work  would 
accrue  largely  to  the  local  cities  in  which  they  were  employed.  It 
resulted,  therefore,  that  the  city  governments  should  pay  the  salaries 
which  constituted  the  greater  portion  of  the  expense  connected  with 
the  offices,  while  the  state  government  should  pay  the  rent  of  offices. 

The  Plan  as  proposed. 

The  original  intentions  of  the  framersof  the  bill  were: 

First,  that  the  local  offices  collect  statistical  data  relating  to  the 


AYRES.  125 

industrial  interests  of  the  state,  supplementing  the  statistics  of  the 
State  Labor  Bureau. 

Second,  that  they  exchange  industrial  information  between  the 
various  cities  of  the  state,  so  that  scarcity  of  a  given  class  of  laborers 
in  one  city  could  be  supplied  from  the  excess  of  such  laborers  in 
another  city. 

Third,  that  they  assist  employers  to  secure  employees. 

Fourth,  that  they  furnish  working  men  and  women  out  of  employ- 
ment free  and  reliable  information  as  to  the  kind  and  character  of 
employment  to  be  had.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  this 
law  that  the  free  employment  offices  should  be  entirely  devoid  of 
partisan  politics,  that  labor  leaders  should  be  appointed  to  the 
superintendencies,  and  that  the  collection  of  statistics  should  be 
more  complete  than  had  hitherto  been  made  in  the  state.  These 
intentions  of  the  framers  have  not  all  been  carried  out.  Legislation 
proposes  ;  the  spoils  system,  like  the  voice  of  God,  disposes. 

Prior  to  the  establishment  of  the  free  employment  offices  there 
were  "  employment  agencies,"  which  were  run  for  private  profit. 
Some  of  them  were  leeches  engaged  in  sucking  the  life-blood  from 
the  poor.  It  is  stated  that  these  private  agencies  charged  men  and 
women  anywhere  from  one  to  fifteen  dollars  for  securing  them 
employment,  and  that  they  obtained  their  victims  chiefly  fr©m  the 
rural  districts  and  neighboring  towns,  often  bound  them  by  contract, 
and  left  them  in  worse  condition  than  before.  One  of  the  chief  ben- 
efits of  the  free  offices  in  Ohio  has  been  to  prevent  the  evils  arising 
from  extortionate  private  agencies,  although  some  continue  to  do  a 
nefarious  business,  sending  laborers  to  unsatisfactory  places  in 
Dakota,  Tennessee,  West  Virginia,  etc.  Private  agencies  in  several 
cities  still  do  business  limited  by  competition  with  the  state  office. 

The  Dill  analyzed.     (Revised  Siahdes  of  Ohio,  Sectioii  308.)* 

The  bill  passed  the  Ohio  legislature,  April  28,  1890.  It  provides 
that  the  state  labor  commissioner  shall  have  an  office  in  the  state 
house  which  shall  be  a  bureau  of  statistics  of  labor.  It  authorizes 
the  commissioner  to  establish  in  the  five  largest  cities  of  Ohio  free 
public  employment  offices,  with  a  superintendent  and  suitable  clerical 
help.      "  No  compensation  or  fee  shall    directly    or   indirectly    be 

*The  "ijill  is  printed  in  Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Ohio  Bureaji  of 
1-abor  Statistics  (for  the  year  1890). 


126  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

charged  to  or  received  from  any  person  or  persons  seeking  employ- 
ment, or  any  person  or  persons  desiring  to  employ  labor  through 
any  of  said  offices."  The  superintendent  is  directed  to  make  a 
weekly  report,  on  Thursday  of  each  week,  to  the  state  commissioner, 
of  the  persons  desiring  to  employ  labor,  and  of  the  persons  applying 
for  employment,  and  of  the  character  of  employment  in  each  case. 
This  weekly  list  from  each  office  in  the  state  is  printed  and  posted  in 
each  of  the  other  offices  in  the  other  cities.  It  is  provided  that  each 
superintendent  shall  receive  a  salary  fixed  by  the  council  of  the 
city  in  which  he  is  employed.  The  salary  of  the  clerical  assistants 
is  limited  to  fifty  dollars  per  month,  though  a  less  sum  may  be  paid 
by  the  local  city  council. 

Under  this  act,  the  five  offices  were  at  once  organized  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1S90;  Toledo  paying  a  salary  of  $1000  per  year,  without  an 
assistant;  Dayton  paying  $1000  per  year,  with  an  assistant  at  $600 
per  year;  Cleveland,  Cincinnati  and  Columbus  paying  $1200  per  year 
each,  with  an  assistant  at  $600  per  year  each. 

The  report  of  the  state  labor  commissioner  for  that  year  makes 
this  criticism  upon  the  law:  "A  bad  feature  of  the  law  is  that  it 
leaves  it  optional  to  councils  of  the  different  cities  to  make  and 
unmake  salaries.  This  position  endangers  the  existence  of  the  offices, 
and  hgis  a  tendency  to  bring  the  superintendents  and  clerks  into 
collusion  with  members  of  the  city  government  as  against  the  com- 
missioner." 

Relation  to  Politics. 

The  offices  have  notbeen  kept  free  from  political  interference.  When 
the  offices  were  first  opened  the  state  had  a  Democratic  governor. 
The  state  commissioner  of  labor  appointed  by  him  was  a  fair-minded 
man,  who  put  into  the  five  free  public  employment  offices  three 
Democrats  favorable  to  the  labor  party  and  two  representatives  of 
the  People's  party.  These  gentlemen  had  no  sooner  become  familiar 
with  the  office,  having  held  it  about  one  year,  just  time  enough  to 
learn  th'e  field  and  to  begin  a  systematic  collection  of  statistics,  when 
the  state  changed  its  political  head  for  one  of  the  Republican  party. 
The  newly-appointed  state  commissioner  of  labor  was  a  Republican. 
All  of  the  original  superintendents  with  their  assistants  weie 
requested  to  resign,  and  new  appointments  were  made  from  the 
Republican  ranks,  with  more  or  less  regard  to  the  labor  interests. 
Thus  there  are  nine  more  offices  than  formerly  that  belong  to  the 
spoils  of  state. 


AYRES.  127 

State  politics,  however,  are  better  than  municipal  politics,  and  the 
offices  have  not  been  interfered  with  by  the  local  city  councils,  nor 
have  there  been  places  where  local  jobs  have  been  given  away  for 
votes.  Fortunately,  the  appointments  have  been  in  the  hands  of 
the  state  commissioner  of  labor,  and  not  in  the  hands  of  the  local 
ward  politician.  The  political  interference,  therefore,  has  not  been 
of  that  despicable  variety  which  would  change  the  office  from  free 
state  employment  to  local  ward  boss  employment.  The  offices  have 
fortunately  escaped  the  exceeding  fine  grinding  of  ihe  local  political 
machines. 

In  the  second  place,  the  collection  of  statistics  has  not  been  so 
complete  as  was  hoped  for.  The  failure  in  this  direction  probably 
results  from  the  failure  to  keep  the  system  free  from  politics.  The 
superintendents  in  the  different  cities  have  not  been  in  office  long 
enough  to  develop  a  uniform  system  of  collecting  statistics,  while 
changes  in  office  tend  to  cultivate  disrespect  on  the  part  of  large 
employers.  In  Dayton,  for  instance,  the  employers  objected  to 
giving  the  statistics  asked  for,  on  the  plea  that  the  state  had  no  right 
to  collect  statistics  from  the  internal  secrets  of  business  men,  to  be 
pried  into  by  designing  politicians  and  business  competitors.  Six 
firms  absolutely  refused  to  comply  with  the  requests,  preferring  the 
risks  of  litigation,  until  events  should  prove  the  law  a  good  one  or  a 
bad  one,  and  either  sustain  it  for  its  good  qualities  or  repeal  it  for 
its  alleged  corrupt  and  unjust  features.  It  was  found  also  that  the 
state  commissioner  of  labor  was  obliged  to  withdraw  the  blanks  sent 
out  by  the  local  superintendents,  to  prevent  confusion  in  the  work  of 
the  special  agents  sent  out  from  the  state  office.  In  one  instance  the 
special  agent  found  that  the  blanks  from  the  local  superintendent  did 
not  command  respect,  they  had  not  been  sent  out  with  tact.  The 
agent  refused  to  work  until  these  local  blanks  had  been  withdrawn. 

The   Work  of  a  Labor  Exchange. 

Still  further,  the  free  employment  offices  have  not  been  the  means 
of  exchanging  knowledge  of  the  industrial  situation  between  different 
cities  to  the  extent  that  was  hoped  for.  The  reports  made  on  Thurs- 
day are  sent  to  Columbus  and  printed,  and  returned  on  Monday  or 
Tuesday,  so  that  it  is  fully  a  week  before  the  notices  are  posted  in 
each  office  as  to  the  condition  of  labor  in  other  cities.  When  this  is 
coupled  with  the  fact  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  applicants  are 


128  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

unskilled  laborers,  it  will  readily  appear  that  the  posted  notices  are 
not  much  considered. 

Nor  have  the  free  public  employment  offices  rendered  large  assist- 
ance to  employers  in  securing  employees,  As  one  employer  said, 
"  So  far  as  the  mechanic  or  skilled  laborer  is  concerned,  manufac- 
turers are  overrun  with  applicants  at  the  shop.  Therefore  they 
have  no  practical  need  of  the  services  of  the  office."  The  number  of 
skilled  artisans  who  have  received  employment  from  the  Public 
Agencies  have  been  few.  The  vacancies,  or  the  possibility  of  vacan- 
cies, have  become  known  and  the  position  applied  for  before  the  manu- 
facturer or  contractor  has  had  an  opportunity  of  seeking  help  through 
the  free  office.  The  superintendent  in  Cincinnati  reports  a  favorable 
growth  in  this  direction,  and  seeks  to  make  his  office  a  local  labor 
exchange. 

Furthermore,  the  work  of  different  offices  in  the  state  has  been 
very  uneven.  In  the  report  for  the  year  1891  the  positions  secured 
in  the  Cleveland,  Columbus  and  Dayton  offices  have  been  very 
largely  for  females  in  the  line  of  domestic  help,  while  many  of  the 
men  who  have  secured  employment  have  been  coachmen,  hostlers, 
cooks,  butlers,  etc.,  all  in  the  line  of  household  service.  Take  for 
instance  the  report  of  the  Cleveland  office  for  the  week  ending  April 
14th,  1893: 

Positions  secured  for  men 38 

Positions  secured  for  women  and  girls,  55 

Of  the  thirty-eight  positions  for  men,  eleven  were  for  servants  and 
work  about  the  house  or  barn ;  of  the  fifty-five  places  for  women 
and  girls,  thirty-nine  were  for  servants.  Of  the  remaining  sixteen 
women  for  other  than  domestic  work,  the  positions  were  as  follows : 
Wet-nurse,  i;  light  work,  3;  day's  work,  6;  house-cleaning,  4; 
laundry  work,  2.  For  that  week,  therefore,  all  of  the  women  and 
one-third  of  the  men  were  sent  to  household  work  in  some  of  its 
branches.  It  would  appear  that  the  state  of  Ohio  has  gone  into  the 
domestic  servant  business !  This  unfavorable  balance  of  female 
domestic  labor  does  not  appear  in  some  of  the  other  offices,  though 
it  forms  a  considerable  portion  elsewhere. 

The  following  table  shows  the  kind  of  labor  secured  in  each  city 
and  the  number  of  male  and  female  laborers  employed  through  the 
five  offices,  for  the  week  ending  April  21,  1893: 


AYRES. 


129 


MALES. 


Laborers 

Carpenters 

Painters 

Marble  workers  . . . 

Moulders 

Upholsterer 

Plasterer  

Core-maker 

Shoemaker 

Varnish  rubber..  .  . 

Shop  works 

Blacksmiths 

General  work 

Clerks 

Canvassers 

Farm  hands 

Gardeners 

To  private  families 

Dish-washers 

Waiters 

Porters 

Hostlers 

Drivers 

Scrubbers  

Boys  for  work 

Total    


. 

1 

«j 

c 

M 

^ 

rt 

s 

B 

t> 

■a 

0 

C 

> 

0) 

s- 

0 

■q 

V 

■5 

c 

U 

U 

H 

p 

U 

22 

3 

19 

6 

14 

3 

8 

4 

I 

2 

I 

.  . 

I 

2 

2 

5 
4 

• 

5 

I 

2 

2 

I 

I 

. . 

.  . 

, . 

2 

4 

5 
3 

I 

I 

I 

I 

3 

2 

I 

3 

I 

4 

2 
.    2 

2 

4 

8 

39 

22 

29 

41 

43 

o 


64 
16 

3 


5 
4 

ID 
2 

3 
10 

3 


3 
3 
3 
7 
2 

15 


173 


FEMALES. 

■ « 

3 

.a 
B 

■5 

U 

•0 

c 
> 

0 

0 

•a 
H 

c 
0 

>> 
« 

Q 

« 

c 
_c 
'0 

c 

J3 

0 

H 

General  housework  

10 

3 

I 

2 

15 

2 

3 
5 
3 
6 

2 
I 

•  • 

15 

I 
I 

5 
3 

•  • 

4 

10 

2 

2 

2 

2 
2 
I 
2 

23 

3 

's 

12 

3 
4 

'6 

73 
9 
6 

Chambermaids  ....  , 

Dining-room  girls 

Upstairs  work 

21 

Cooks 

21 

Day  work 

8 

Nurse  girls 

4 

Dish-washers 

Seamstresses / 

4 
4 

I  lotel  work 

8 

Laundresses  

9 
I 

Solicitor 

Factory  work. 

2 

Total 

2 1 

37 

30 

23 

59 

170 

Males. . . 
Females 


"73 
,  170 


243  for  one  week. 


130 


PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 


Summary  of  Situations  wanted,  Help  wanted,  and  Positions  secured 
FROM  January  i,  1891,  to  January  i,  1892. 


Situations 

Wanted. 

Help  Wanted. 

Positions  Secured. 

Males. 

Females. 

Males. 

Females. 

Males. 

Females. 

Columbus     

3.128 
6,308 

3.859 
3.351 
4,811 

1.739 

3.830 

1.799 
2,118 

3.428 

1,534 

925 
2,481 
1,386 

3.369 

2,268 
3.471 

2,479 
2,004 

3,291 

915 
886 

2,064 

790 

2,312 

1,481 

Cleveland  

2,so8 

Toledo 

1,391 
1,119 

Dayton 

Cincinnati 

2,129 

Total 

21,457 

12,914 

9.695 

13,513 

6,967 

8,628 

Situations  secured,  males  and  females,  15,595. 

The  amount  of  help  wanted  was  67.52  per  cent,  of  situations  wanted. 

Positions  secured  was  66.9  per  cent,  of  help  wanted. 

'•  "  "     45.2         "  situations  wanted. 

The  total  number  of  persons  who  secured  employment  through 
the  offices  in  one  year  was  15,525.  Of  this  number,  6,967  were 
males,  8,558  were  females.  While  it  appears  from  the  tables  given 
that  most  of  the  persons  benefited  by  the  offices  are  of  the  lowest 
industrial  grade,  few  of  the  men  or  women  being  skilled  laborers, 
yet  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  work  which  is  accomplished  is 
of  little  value.  The  five  state  offices  cost  the  state  about  $10,000  per 
year.  If  each  of  these  15,525  persons  had  to  pay  one  dollar  or  more 
for  his  position,  the  sum  would  have  been  at  least  $15,525,  all  of 
which  has  been  saved  to  the  people  who  need  it  most  and  at  the 
time  when  they  need  it  most.  The  offices  are  a  boon  to  the  unskilled 
laborers,  and  for  their  sakes  should  be  continued. 

The  offices  have  not  been  used  by  the  large  employers  nor  by 
skilled  artisans,  but  they  have  done  a  work  for  the  unskilled  laborers, 
preventing  extortion  by  private  agencies,  and  directing  them  to 
places  where  help  is  wanted,  to  which  they  never  would  have  drifted 
of  their  own  accord.  The  chief  work,  therefore,  of  the  free  offices 
has  not  been  to  influence  the  labor  question  materially.  They  have 
done  very  little  to  change  the  attitude  of  employers  and  employees 
tov/ard  each  other.  They  have  done  comparatively  little  for  regular 
employees,  who,  of  course,  seldom  need  the  services  of  the  offices ; 


WEBER. 


131 


but  they  have  caught  the  driftwood  of  the  labor  market  and  have 
directed  it  into  useful  channels.  They  have  assisted  these  out-of-works 
to  $15,000  in  cash  which  they  otherwise  must  have  spent,  in  addition 
to  the  service  of  information  rendered,  and  thus  act  as  preventives 
of  pauperism  in  a  very  true  sense,  without  in  anywise  being  helpful 
in  the  creation  of  new  paupers. 


PAUPERISM  AND  CRIME. 

JOHN   B.    WEBER. 

The  ordinary  definition  of  a  pauper  is  one  who  has  become  a 
charge  upon  the  public;  but,  as  applied  to  a  foreigner,  there  is  a  dis- 
position, widely  extended  and  firmly  lodged  in  the  minds  of  many  of 
our  people,  to  have  it  embrace  arriving  immigrants  who  have  little 
means,  notwithstanding  they  may  possess  in  a  marked  degree  the 
physical  capacity  and  apparent  willingness  to  gain  a  livelihood  by 
labor. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  nth  day  of  February  last,  in  speaking  to  the  amendment  relat- 
ing to  destitute  aliens,  among  other  things  said  ; 

"Now  the  first  thing  we  have  to  consider  is  what  is  meant  by  the  words 
'destitute  aliens.'  What  aliens  are  destitute?  ....  How  can  we  make 
good  that  definition  of  a  destitute  alien,  a  man  who  is  supporting  himself  by 
wages  which  he  earns,  which  his  employer  is  willing  to  give  him,  and  with 
which  he  is  contented?  In  what  sense  is  he  destitute?  He  is  destitute  in 
this  sense,  that  if  he  had  not  got  employment,  and  wages  as  a  result  of  such 
employment,  then  he  would  be  destitute.  Yes,  sir,  but  that  is  the  definition  of 
the  condition  of  the  entire  laboring  population.  They  are  not  destitute,  but 
they  would  be,  if  they  did  not  get  the  wages  which  they  earn  in  their  trades." 

Upon  this  point  Commissioners  Kempster  and  Weber,  who  as 
representatives  of  the  government  visited  Europe  in  the  summer  of 
1891  to  investigate  and  report  upon  the  subject  of  immigration  to 
this  country,  used  this  language: 


132  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

"In  investigating  your  proposition  with  reference  to  pauperism,  the  question 
was  raised  as  to  the  definition  of  the  word  '  pauper  '  within  the  meaning  of 
existing  law.  We  did  not  regard  a  person  as  a  pauper  who  presented  every 
appearance  of  industry,  willingness  and  physical  capacity  to  labor,  even  if  his 
means  on  landing  were  limited,  nor  yet  if  he  was  assisted  by  friends,  relatives 
or  philanthropic  persons,  unless  such  assistance  implied  a  leaning  upon  others 
for  support.  The  greatest  number  of  those  arriving  within  the  last  year,  who, 
because  of  special  conditions  surrounding  their  cases,  received  assistance  en 
route,  were  Jews,  yet  they  very  rarely  became  a  charge  upon  the  public. 
Indeed,  no  race  or  nationality  presents  so  clean  a  record  in  such  respect  as 
they.  A  person  who  by  reason  of  unexpected  misfortunes  or  persecutions  is 
deprived  of  his  accumulations,  who  has  been  subjected  to  pillage  and  plunder 
while  fleeing  from  the  burdens  which  have  become  unbearable,  if  capable  of 
supporting  himself  and  family — if  he  has  one — with  a  reasonable  certainty 
after  obtaining  a  foothold,  and  if  that  foothold  is  guaranteed  by  friends  or 
relatives  upon  landing  or  strong  probable  surrounding  circumstances,  is  not, 
according  to  our  definition,  a  pauper.  The  history  of  this  country  is  full  of 
instances  of  men  from  all  countries  who  have  reached  great  prominence  in  our 
commercial,  financial,  professional  and  legislative  bodies  both  in  state  and 
nation,  who  would  have  been  returned  as  paupers  if  the  standard  of  pauperism 
was  based  upon  money  possessions  when  landing." 

It  is  true  that  foreigners  contribute  an  undue  quota  of  paupers  and 
criminals  in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  but  they  are  burdened  with 
excessive  conditions  from  which  the  natives  are  free,  and  in  weighing 
the  value  of  immigrants  there  should  be  taken  into  the  account  the 
vast  net  benefits  which  we  derive  from  the  influx  as  a  whole.  They 
come  into  a  strange  country  where  new  customs  and  methods  con- 
front them,  many  of  them  unfamiliar  with  our  language,  and  to  this 
extent  start  handicapped  in  the  competition  for  a  livelihood.  We 
should  rather  wonder  at  the  small  number  who  become  discouraged 
and  yield  to  the  temptation  of  crime  or,  heartsick  and  despondent, 
apply  for  relief  to  the  poor  authorities. 

Viewing  the  subject  simply  from  the  standpoint  of  dollars  and 
cents,  which  is  perhaps  a  very  low  but  a  very  practical  one,  the 
incoming  of  foreigners  has  been,  now  is,  and  I  believe  for  a  long 
time  to  come  will  be,  the  best  investment  this  nation  has  yet  made. 
Charge  against  them  all  the  cost  of  crime  and  pauperism — going 
back  a  generation  or  two,  if  necessary — charge  against  them  all  the 
real  and  alleged  evils  of  their  influence  in  the  administration  of  the 
municipal  affairs  of  our  cities  where  foreigners  or  those  of  immediate 
foreign  extraction  predominate,  and  the  net  advantage  remaining  is 
still  colossal.     Formerly  it  was  estimated    that  every  able-bodied 


WEBER.  133 

arrival  added  a  thousand  dollars  to  the  wealth  of  the  country,  and  if 
this  is  correct,  it  is  not  a  difficult  calculation  to  measure  the  gain  to 
the  state  of  New  York  for  the  year  1892,  during  which  period  about 
40,000  families  settled  therein.  Assuming  that  only  the  heads  of  those 
families  were  able-bodied  producers — and  this  is  a  liberal  assump- 
tion on  the  opposite  side  of  my  contention — it  meant  an  increase 
of  $40,000,000  to  the  resources  of  the  state.  The  cost  of  the  alien 
criminals  and  paupers  who  cannot  under  any  system  of  inspection 
or  plan,  other  than  total  prohibition  of  immigration,  be  entirely  elim- 
inated, is  absolutely  insignificant  in  comparison.  Nor  is  there  any 
convincing  evidence  that  the  value  of  the  immigrant  has  diminished. 
The  fact  that  he  comes  indicates  that  the  conditions  here  require 
him.  The  movement  is  not  a  haphazard  one,  nor  is  it  based  on 
whim  or  caprice ;  except  as  to  Russia,  it  is  in  obedience  to  the  law  of 
attraction,  not  repulsion.  It  is  founded  on  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand.  Place  the  figures  of  arrivals  alongside  of  your  years  of 
panic  or  industrial  distress  and  you  have  a  plain  revelation. 

The  arrivals  of  79,000  in  the  panic  year  of  1837  were  cut  down  to 
38,000  in  1838.  In  1857  the  arrivals  were  246,000,  falling  to  119,000 
the  following  year.  The  next  panic  year  of  1873  showed  450,000, 
dropping  to  313,000  in  1874,  227,000  in  1875,  169,000  in  1876,  141,- 

000  in  1877, 138,000  in  1878,  rising  to  177,000  in  1879,  and  regaining 
its  normal  volume  of  457,000  in  1880. 

Immigration  statistics  have  proven  an  unfailing  barometer  indi- 
cating industrial  conditions  ;  and  in  tracing  immigrants  to  final  desti- 
nation in  this  country,  it  will  be  found  that  the  movement  is  most 
sluggish  where  development  is  least  active  ;  or  in  other  words,  where 
the  immigrant  is  a  novelty,  the  sheriff  is  a  necessity. 

Of  course  it  is  not  contended  that  we  should  let  in  every  applicant, 
simply  because  there  is,  and  will  continue  to  be,  a  large  balance  on 
the  credit  side  of  the  account ;  but  I  regard  it  as  an  unwise  policy  to 
close  the  gates,  wholly  or  in  great  part,  whether  in  express  terms  of 
law  or  indirectly  by  alleged  improvement  in  the  method  of  inspection. 

1  am  in  favor  of  any  plan  practicable  in  its  enforcement  and  honest  in 
striking  at  real  evils,  having  for  its  object  the  exclusion  of  those  who 
are  physically  and  mentally  weak,  vicious,  diseased,  dangerously 
ignorant,  or  whose  labor  is  contracted  for  abroad  to  the  detriment  of 
the  better  paid  and  higher  grade  labor  of  this  country. 

The  statistics,  however,  should  not  be  twisted  to  strengthen  dema- 
goguery  or  foster  narrow-minded  prejudice.     If  the  census  returns 


134  PUBLIC   TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

are  made  so  as  to  show  that  about  15  per  cent,  of  our  population  is 
made  up  of  persons  of  foreign  birth,  the  tables  of  crime  and  pauper- 
ism chargeable  to  aliens  need  not  be  swelled  in  their  totals  by  adding 
to  the  foreign-born  those  who  were  born  here  of  mixed  or  foreign 
parentage.  The  figures,  in  respect  of  crime  at  least,  do  not  exhibit 
marked  improvement  of  foreign  stock  by  contact  with  our  civiliza- 
tion. On  the  contrary,  one  nationality,  according  to  the  census 
returns,  shows  the  following,  viz.: 

Foreign-born  parents  of  foreign-born  criminals 11,118 

Foreign-born  parents  of  native-born  criminals 16,695 

The  pauper  statistics  of  the  same  nationality  make  a  more  gratify- 
ing exhibit,  showing  a  reverse  result,  but  of  increased  emphasis,  viz.: 

Foreign-born  parents  of  foreign-born  paupers  number 28,256 

Foreign-born  parents  of  native-born  paupers  number 3>758 

These  figures  seem  to  indicate  that  the  Americanized  generation 
improves  as  to  pauperism,  but  retrogrades  as  to  crime. 

In  analyzing  the  census  statistics  of  criminals  and  paupers  of 
foreign  extraction  there  were  developed  some  interesting,  and  to  me 
surprising  exhibits,  differing  so  materially  from  popular  belief  that  I 
append  a  table  extracted  from  the  returns  and  arranged  in  groups 
for  purposes  of  ready  comparison. 

Figures  from  the  United  States  Census  of  1890. 
White  Criminals  and  Paupers. 


Color  and  Nativity. 

Crim 

nals. 

Paupers. 

Number. 

Per  cetit. 

Number. 

Per  cent. 

Total  white 

57,310 

100.00 

66,578 

100.00 

Native,  white 

40,471 

15,932 

907 

36,969 

70.62 

27.80 

1.58 

100.00 

36,656 
27,648 

2,274 

49,167 

55.06 

41-53 

3-41 

100.00 

Foreiern,  white 

Birthplace  unknown 

Both  parents  native  or  foreign 

Natives  born  of  native  parents 

21,037 
15,932 

56.90 

43-10 

21,519 
27,648 

43-77 
56.23 

Foreigners  born  of  foreign  parents 

WEBER. 


135 


Immigration  and  Parentage. 


Immigrants 
1886-1890. 

Parents 

of  Native  Criminals  and 
Paupers. 

Nationality. 

One 

parent 
foreign. 

Both  parents  foreign. 

Total 

foreign 

parents. 

Same 
nationality. 

Different 
nationalities. 

Criminals. 
English  speaking 

•673.158 

2,229 

9,104 

1,941 

41,584 

England 

Scotland 

330,719 
85,619 

6,332 
250,448 
{a) 

457.765 

449 
191 

35 

1,276 

278 

9 

590 

240 

46 

7,935 
293 

69 

514 

355 

36 
825 

211 
16 

5.997 
1,996 

Wales 

343 

Ireland 

29,184 

Canada 

Non-English  speaking  . 

4,064 
2,192 

Italy 

197,805 

183,445 
76,505 

673.158 

5 

I 

3 

702 

174 

75 
8 

345 
100 

5 

3 

I 
I 

33 
19 
16 

I 

2,231 

4 

•  • 

2 
363 

1,209 

Poland,  \ 

339 
382 

262 

Russia,  j                    ... 
Hungary 

Paupers. 
English  speaking 

41,103 

England 

330,719 
85,619 

6,332 

250,448 
(.) 

457.765 

240 

47 

30 

1,806 

108 

32 

99 
64 

8 

146 

46 

10 

4,688 

Scotland 

i>392 

Wales 

590 

Ireland 

32,421 

Canada 

2,012 

Non-English  speaking  . 

1,037 

Italy 

197,805 

183,445 
76,505 

9 
18 

2 
3 

5 

•  • 

2 
3 

317 

Poland,  \ 

476 

136 

108 

Russia,   j 

Hungary : . 

(a)  No  statistics  of  immigrants  from  the  British  North  American  Possessions  since  1885. 

Note  by  the  Editor. —  This  table  has  been  recast  and  corrected  to  con- 
form to  Census  Bulletin  352,  "  Natiyity  and  Parentage  of  Prisoners  and 
Paupers."  Mr.  Weber's  argument  has  been  rather  strengthened  than  other- 
wise by  the  slight  alterations  in  his  figures. 

The  following  figures,  also  from  the  Census  of  1890,  but  as  yet  unpublished, 
may  be  added  to  those  which  he  has  given. 

The  fairest  possible  comparison  is  that  between  the  total  population  of  any 
given  nationality  and  the  group  of  the  same  nationality  which  is  the  subject  of 


136 


PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 


study.  The  total  number  of  English  in  the  United  States,  June  i,  1890,  was 
907,259;  Scotch,  242,197  ;  Welch,  100,065  ;  Irish,  1,871,339;  Canadians,  973,- 
488;  total,  4,094,618.  These  figures  maybe  taken  as  divisors.  There  are  two 
distinct  sets  of  dividends,  of  which  the  first  is  composed  of  foreign-born 
prisoners  and  paupers;  the  second,  of  the  foreign-born  parents  of  prisoners 
and  paupers.  By  adding  six  ciphers  to  the  latter  we  obtain  the  ratios  to 
1,000,000  of  the  same  element  of  the  total  population.  The  adoption  of  this 
process  gives  the  following  result : 

Ratios  for  Prisoners  and  Paupers. 


Elements. 

Population. 

Prisoners. 

Paupers. 

Number. 

Ratio. 

Number. 

Katie. 

Total  white 

54,983,890 

57,310 

1,042 

66.578 

45,862,023 

41,378 

902 

38,930 

849 

Parents  native 

Parents  foreign 

34.358,348 

11.503,675 

9,121,867 

4,094,618 

25,690 
15,688 

15,932 
9,628 

748 

1,364 

1.747 
2.3SI 

34.219 

4,7" 

27,648 

17,846 

996 
410 

3,031 
4.358 

Selected  Nationalities. 

907.529 
242,197 
100,065 

1.871,339 
973,488 

574,781 

1,918 

479 

89 

S.559 

1,583 

1,050 

2,115 
1,977 
8S9 
2,970 
1,626 

1,826 

1,962 

575 

^56 

14,128 

925 

524 

Scotland 

Wales 

2.375 

2.559 

7.55° 

950 

912 

Canada. , 

Non-English  speaking 

Italy 

182,342 

147,416 

182,614 

62,409 

562 
149 
209 
130 

3.115 
1,011 
1,144 

2,083 

149 

219 

107 

49 

817 

1,485 

586 

785 

Poland 

Ratios  for  Parents  of  Prisoners  and  Paupers. 


Selected  Nationalities 

English  speaking 

England 

Scotland 

Wales 

Ireland .. 

Canada 

Non-English  speaking. . . . 

Italy 

Poland 

Russia . . 

Hungary 


4,094,618. 


907,529 
242,197 
100,065 

1,871.339 
973.488 

574,781 


182,342 

147,416 

182,614 

62,409 


41,914 


5.997 
1,996 

343 
29,184 

4,394 
2,192 


1,209 

339 
382 
262 


10,236 


6,6c8 
8,241 
3.428 
15.328 
4,514 

3.814 


6,630 
2,300 
2,092 
4,198 


41.350 


4.688 

1,392 

590 

32,419 

2,261 

1.037 


317 
476 
136 
loS 


'.09? 


5,'66 
5.747 
S.896 
17.324 
2,323 

i,8c4 


1,739 

3.229 

745 

1,731 


WEBER.  1 37 

As  the  objections  usually  heard  against  particular  classes  of  immi- 
grants are  leveled  at  the  Italians,  Poles,  Russians  and  Hungarians,  I 
have  grouped  the  criminals  and  paupers  of  these  four  countries  on 
the  one  hand,  and  those  from  English-speaking  countries  on  the 
other.  I  select  the  latter  to  compare  with  the  first  named  for  the 
reason  that  so  much  has  been  said  of  the  easy  assimilation  with  us  of 
our  British  cousins,  because  they  speak  the  same  language,  spring 
from  the  same  stock,  and  will  sooner  become  "Americanized"  than 
the  others,  that  by  comparing  the  best  and  the  worst  (according  to 
popular  estimate)  an  interesting  and  perhaps  instructive  exhibit  may 
be  furnished.  In  order  that  the  comparison  may  be  fairly  based,  I 
give  the  number  of  arrivals  in  each  group  for  the  five  years  preceding 
and  including  the  census  year  in  which  criminal  and  pauper  statistics 
were  taken  ;  the  totals  showing  that  those  in  the  group  of  what  may 
be  termed  Southern  Europeans  are  nearly  two-thirds  as  large  as 
those  from  Great  Britain, and  thereforethe  totals  of  undesirables  should 
bear  the  same  proportions,  to  place  them  on  a  level.  The  figures 
in  every  column  show  the  English-speaking  people  so  far  in  the  lead, 
both  in  respect  of  criminals  and  paupers,  that  it  almost  staggers 
belief.  Thus  in  the  class  of  criminals  confined  in  our  prisons  in 
i8go,  the  number  of  natives  with  one  foreign  parent  from  Great 
Britain  or  Canada  are  2229  and  only  9  from  Southern  Europe ;  of 
both  parents  foreign  there  were  9104  English-speaking  and  but  69 
from  Southern  Europe  ;  of  both  parents  foreign,  but  of  different 
nationalities,  1941  of  the  assimilable  class,  and  but  6  of  the  others; 
while  the  nationality  of  foreign  parents  of  criminals  born  abroad  and 
here,  there  were  41,584  of  English-speaking  people  as  against  2192 
of  those  who  are  not  readily  assimilated  because  they  do  not  speak 
our  language.  The  same  results  substantially  are  found  in  the 
pauper  classes,  except  that  in  the  last  column  we  find  41,103  English- 
speaking  parents  as  against  1037  Southern  Europeans.  These  figures 
demonstrate  that  those  who  more  readily  assimilate  with  us  furnish 
the  greatest  number  of  criminals  and  paupers. 

But  after  all,  the  question  is,  Are  we  making  gain?  and  improve- 
ments in  keeping  out  bad  elements  ?  and  we  must  solve  the  problem. 
How  can  the  weeding  process  be  still  rriore  improved  ? 

That  there  has  been  decided  improvement  in  the  matter  of  inspec- 
tion by  the  immigration  authorities  at  New  York  since  the  federal 
government  superseded  that  of  the  state  officials,  the  figures  amply 
demonstrate ;    that  the  laws  can  be  amended  so  as  to  produce  still 


138  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

better  results,  1  confidently  believe.  The  policy  of  the  United  States 
officials  at  the  chief  immigration  station  from  the  beginning  has  been 
to  strengthen  the  medical  and  other  inspection  force  at  the  threshold, 
and  thus  reduce  the  number  to  be  cared  for  after  landing.  This 
necessarily  increased  the  expense  at  the  starting  point,  but  materially 
reduced  it  at  our  hospitals,  making  the  total  expense  less.  Not  only 
did  it  save  to  the  government  in  the  matter  of  caring  for  those  who 
fell  into  distress  within  the  year  from  landing,  as  evidenced  by  ascer- 
tainable figures,  but  it  must  have  saved  largely  in  the  classes  not 
separated  or  distinguished,  who,  after  the  year,  fall  as  burdens  upon 
local  communities.  For  instance,  the  federal  authorities  at  New 
York  turned  back  to  Europe,  in-the  first  two  years  and  seven  months 
of  their  administration,  twice  as  many  as  the  state  officials  did  in  the 
five  years  preceding  federal  control.  Under  the  state  authorities  the 
daily  average  attendance  of  those  who  were  cared  for  within  the 
year  of  landing  at  the  expense  of  the  "  immigrant  fund  "  reached 
266,  while  under  the  federal  authorities  it  fell  to  73J  in  1891,  and  81 
and  a  fraction  in  1892,  with  increased  immigration  during  the  latter 
years.  The  number  of  insane  immigrants  (the  most  serious  burden), 
under  federal  officials,  never  reached  25  per  cent,  of  those  turned 
over  to  them  by  the  state  board,  after  disposing  of  the  subjects  so 
transferred  by  recovery,  death  or  removal  to  local  institutions  at  the 
end  of  the  year.  There  is  other  corroborative  evidence  of  improve- 
ment in  the  sifting  process. 

The  number  of  steamship  tickets  for  immigrants  returning  to 
Europe,  based  upon  reduced  or  charity  rates,  issued  by  the  com- 
panies to  persons  having  some  means,  but  who  failed  in  successfully 
competing  here  for  a  livelihood,  show  a  decreasing  tendency ;  the 
figures  from  several  of  the  more  important  lines  marking  in  1892  a 
decline  of  25  per  cent,  over  those  of  1889. 

The  number  of  immigrants  returned  to  Europe  at  government 
expense  was  reduced  from  109  for  1891  to  11  for  1892.  The  old 
law  prevailed  for  the  first  three  months  'of  1891,  during  which  36  of 
the  109  were  returned,  but  the  same  law  governed  for  the  rest  of  the 
stated  time,  and  material  improvement  is  shown  in  these  reduced 
figures. 

I  believe,  however,  that  further  practical  improvement  in  the 
sifting  process  is  possible  and  available.  While  every  plan  must  in 
the  nature  of  things  be  in  a  sense  experimental,  and  none  can  be 
expected  to  yield  absolutely  perfect  results,  I  still  adhere  to  sugges- 


WEBER.  139 

tions  heretofore  made  on  various  occasions,  and  conclude  this  paper 
by  quoting,  as  pertinent  to  this  point,  from  an  address  on  the  subject 
of  immigration  delivered  by  me  at  Cooper  Union,  New  York,  in 
January,  1893. 

'■'■Plan  recommended.     Sub-agents'*  Certification.     Inspection  Here  and  Compttl- 

sory  Return  after  Landing. 

"  The  plan  that  I  would  suggest  is  that  laid  down  in  Dr.  Kempster's  and  my 
report  referred  to,  from  which  I  have  seen  no  reason  to  deviate  in  its  general 
features,  except  to  add  a  clause  vesting  in  the  President  the  power  to  suspend 
immigration  temporarily  in  the  case  of  threatened  pestilence,  and  possibly  an 
educational  qualification  ;  the  report  having  been  written  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  typhus  and  cholera  of  last  year,  and  before  illiteracy  statistics  were 
kept  at  the  Immigration  Bureau.  I  would  hold  the  sub-agents  of  steamship 
companies,  of  whom  there  are  many  thousands  scattered  over  Europe,  respon- 
sible for  the  sale  of  a  ticket  to  a  prohibited  person,  reaching  them  not  directly 
by  our  law,  for  that  is  impossible,  but  striking  at  their  pockets  through  the 
steamship  agencies  or  companies  in  this  country  ;  compelling  them  to  pay  the 
return  passage  of  a  defective  immigrant  and  levying  a  fine  in  each  instance  in 
addition,  if  necessary  ;  or  in  other  words,  imposing  a  penalty,  which  in  a  single 
case  would  wipe  out  the  commissions  received  in  a  great  many.  The  sub- 
agent,  in  almost  all  cases,  knows  the  applicant  personally;  lives  in  the 
village  with  him;  is  familiar  with  his  family  history;  knows  his  conduct  and 
deportment,  and  his  mental  and  physical  defects,  better  than  any  one  who 
comes  in  contact  with  him  after  he  leaves  his  home.  No  other  person  who 
can  be  reached  knows  so  well.  As  one  of  the  details  of  this  plan,  I  would 
have  each  intending  emigrant,  when  he  applies  for  a  ticket,  sign  and  swear  to 
a  duplicate  statement  covering  all  necessary  points,  one  copy  to  be  sent 
through  the  S.  S.  Agents  to  the  Inspection  Bureau  in  the  United  States, 
retaining  the  other  for  personal  presentation  by  the  immigrant  upon  arrival, 
which  would  answer  as  a  descriptive  list  showing  precisely  what  he  had  sworn 
to  upon  purchasing  his  ticket.  I  would  continue  a  rigid  inspection  here,  and 
besides  hold  every  alien  immigrant  after  landing  subject  to  compulsory  depor- 
tation, in  the  discretion  of  the  courts,  whenever  he  develops  into  pauperism  or 
criminality,  and  until  he  has  assumed  the  burdens  and  acquired  the  privileges 
of  citizenship;  or,  in  other  words,  I  would  have  him  passing  through  the 
Immigration  Bureau  continuously  until  he  became  a  citizen.  Every  country 
in  Europe  deports  alien  paupers  and  criminals  to  their  homes  except  Great 
Britain,  and  there  is  no  sentiment  or  reason  which  we  would  violate  if  we 
adopted  the  same  plan.  This  would  rid  us  of  paupers  when  they  reach  that 
stage,  of  criminals  after  serving  their  sentence,  and  they  would  properly 
become  a  burden  upon  the  community  from  whence  they  sprang,  or  upon  the 
governments  to  which  they  still  owe  allegiance.  I  regard  this  feature  as 
practical  and  important.  In  a  minor  degree  we  now  have  this  power,  and  it 
works  very  well.  We  are  now  authorized  to  return  to  Europe  within  twelve 
months  after  landing,  a  person  who   has  come   here  in  violation  of  the   immi- 


140  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

gration  laws,  or  who  becomes  a  public  charge  from  causes  existing  prior  to 
landing ;  and  under  this  limited  power  we  have  returned  over  five  hundred 
persons  during  the  last  year,  who  could  not  be  detected  by  any  process  of 
inspection,  here  or  abroad,  and  nearly  all  of  whom  would  have  become  a  per- 
manent burden' upon  some  of  our  communities.  Wipe  out  this  year  limit, 
extend  it  to  cover  the  period  to  citizenship,  and  eliminate  that  requirement 
that  we  must  show  that  the  cause  existed  prior  to  landing,  so  as  to  take  in  one 
who  becomes  a  pauper  or  a  criminal  here,  and  we  solve  the  problem  of  how  to 
get  rid  of  the  undesirable  element  coming  to  us  from  abroad.  Then  guard 
better  your  avenues  to  citizenship,  and  a  great  many  of  your  immigration  evils 
will  disappear. 

"One  Feature  of  Naturalization. 

"As  one  of  the  details  of  naturalization,  I  would  have  permanent  records 
kept  at  the  Immigration  Bureau  of  the  names  of  arriving  immigrants,  alpha- 
betically arranged  and  indexed,  and  would  furnish  to  each  a  certificate  setting 
forth  a  brief  description,  with  name,  steamer  and  date  of  arrival,  which  should 
be  required  by  courts  of  naturalization  as  evidence  of  time  of  residence  in  this 
country.  These  papers  could  be  recorded  or  filed  in  the  various  clerks'  offices 
to  guard  against  loss,  certified  copies  made  in  case  of  change  of  residence, 
while  the  record  at  the  immigration  station  would  be  available  for  verification 
in  case  of  necessity." 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  INEBRIATE  PAUPERISM. 

T.    D.    CROTHERS,   M.  D.,   SUPERINTENDENT   OF   WALNUT   LODGE 
HOSPITAL,   HARTFORD,    CONNECTICUT. 

Some  conception  of  this  problem  may  be  obtained  from  the  fact 
that  in  1891  over  eight  hundred  thousand  persons  were  arrested  in 
this  country  charged  with  being  intoxicated  and  committing  petty 
crimes.  It  may  be  fairly  presumed  that  at  least  half  as  many  more 
who  used  spirits  to  excess  did  not  come  under  legal  notice.  If  to 
these  are  added  those  who  used  opium,  chloral  and  other  drug 
narcotics,  the  number  reaches  enormous  proportions. 

Practically  this  vast  army  of  inebriates  represents  all  classes  and 
conditions,  and  its  members  are  literally  withdrawn  from  the  ranks 
of  active  workers  and  producers,  and  become  obstacles  and  burdens 
to  sanitary  life.  They  are  centres  of  pauperism  and  progressive 
degeneration  and  of  the  most  unsanitary  physiological  and  psycho- 
logical conditions.     This  army  literally  follows  a  continuous  line  of 


CROTHERS.  141 

retrogression,  which  antagonizes  all  evolution,  growth  and  develop- 
ment, and  seems  to  be  governed  by  a  uniform  law  of  cause  and  effect, 
marked  by  a  beginning,  development,  decline  and  extinction,  the 
mystery  of  which  makes  it  the  most  absorbing  scientific  problem  of 
the  age. 

To-day  over  a  million  workers  are  waging  a  great  moral  crusade 
to  break  up  this  evil.  Politics,  religion,  education,  the  pulpit  and 
press  are  combined  in  a  struggle  with  this  problem,  approaching  it 
exclusively  from  the  moral  side.  Medieval  superstition  and  moral 
theories  are  urged,  through  the  pledge,  prayer,  persecution  and 
punishment,  to  explain  and  check  this  evil.  Above  all  this  moral 
agitation  and  effort  the  voice  of  science  appeals  to  physicians  for 
help.  This  army  of  inebriates  is  increasing,  and  with  it  losses  and 
degeneration  both  of  individuals  and  the  race.  While  inebriates  are 
a  part  of  the  great  army  of  the  "  unfit"  who  are  "  mustered  out  "  and 
crowded  out  in  the  race  march,  there  is  yet  unmistakable  evidence 
that  some  can  be  halted,  headed  off,  and  returned  to  health. 

Already  science  has  pointed  out  possibilities  of  cure  and  prevention, 
which  give  promise  of  practically  stamping  out  this  evil  in  the  near 
future.  Some  of  the  outline  facts  from  the  sanitary  side  will  show 
the  extent  of  the  evil,  and  the  possibilities  of  cure  from  a  larger  and 
more  accurate  study  of  the  subject.  The  great  sanitary  problem  of 
to-day  is  the  knowledge  and  removal  of  the  causes  of  disease,  and 
the  placing  of  the  victim  under  the  best  conditions  for  a  return  to 
health.  To  remove  the  conditions  which  favor  and  encourage 
disease,  and  break  up  the  breeding-places  of  crime,  pauperism  and 
allied  forms  of  degeneration,  is  one  of  the  future  certainties  of  science. 
There  are  to-day  over  a  million  unrecognized  inebriates  who  are  the 
most  defective,  dangerous  and  degenerate  of  all  classes.  They  are 
centres  of  pauperism  and  sanitary  evils,  which  pass  on  into  the  next 
generation,  entailing  misery  and  loss  beyond  estimate. 

The  superstition  of  personal  freedom  with  free  will  permits  this 
army  of  inebriates  to  go  on  year  after  year  destroying  themselves, 
increasing  the  burden  of  their  families,  and  building  up  veritable 
centres  of  physical  and  mental  degeneration.  Nothing  can  be  more 
disastrous  from  a  sanitary  and  scientific  standpoint  than  the  indiffer- 
ence which  permits  men  and  women  to  use  alcohol  and  other  drugs, 
not  only  destroying  themselves,  but  entailing  all  degrees  of  degen- 
eration on  their  descendants. 


142 


PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF   PAUPERISM. 


Sanitary  science  teaches  that  no  one  has  a  right  to  destroy  himself 
and  peril  the  health  and  comfort  of  others.  The  moderate  and 
periodic  drinkers  are  always  sources  of  danger  to  themselves  and 
others.  To  wait  until  they  become  chronic  and  degenerate  into  law- 
breakers is  to  apply  the  remedy  when  it  is  too  late.  Public  senti- 
ment should  not  permit  one  to  become  an  inebriate,  nor  tolerate  him 
after  he  has  reached  such  a  stage.  He  should  be  prevented  and  forced 
to  undergo  treatment,  and  should  be  regarded  as  dangerous  to  the 
safety  and  welfare  of  the  community,  and  isolated  until  fully  restored. 

In  the  near  future  science  will  demand  that  every  inebriate  have 
legal  guardianship  and  restriction  of  personal  freedom  until  he 
recovers.  When  these  cases  realize  that  such  restrictions  will  be 
enforced  they  will  seek  treatment  in  the  early  stages  of  their  disease. 
The  teaching  of  science  demands  that  both  the  pauper  and  million- 
aire be  seized  at  the  very  onset  and  forced  into  conditions  of  health 
and  sobriety,-  and  saved  from  becoming  burdens  on  the  community 
and  centres  of  ruin  and  misery. 

The  saloon,  with  free  sale  of  spirits,  is,  from  a  sanitary  point  of 
view,  a  source  of  extreme  danger.  Its  influence  in  any  community 
is  bad.  It  brings  sanitary  perils  by  destroying  the  physical  and 
mental  stability  of  its  patrons,  and  both  directly  and  indirectly  favors 
the  worst  conditions  of  life.  The  saloon  has  no  claim  for  recognition 
as  a  business.  It  is  simply  a  parasite  thriving  on  the  decay  and 
degeneration  of  the  community.  It  is  only  tolerated  by  the  dense 
ignorance  and  selfishness  of  its  defenders.  It  should  be  classed  with 
foul  sewers,  dangerous  waters  and  unsanitary,  death-dealing  forces. 
Persecution  of  it  as  a  moral  evil  keeps  it  alive,  but  examination  from 
the  standpoint  of  science  would  be  fatal  to  its  perpetuity.  The  drink 
problem  would  be  largely  solved  could  the  favoring  conditions  of 
saloons  be  changed. 

Unregulated  marriage,  now  a  mere  matter  of  accident  and  impulse, 
is  another  source  of  danger  perpetuating  the  drink-curse.  Inebriates, 
insane,  and  neurotics  of  all  degrees  are  permitted  to  propagate  and 
transmit  their  defects  to  succeeding  generations.  The  result  is  a 
race  of  neurotics,  who  develop  inebriety  and  all  forms  of  insanity  and 
idiocy,  together  with  all  associated  conditions.  The  army  of  neur- 
otics beyond  all  question  reappears  in  succeeding  generations  with 
similar  or  interchangeable  diseases.  The  inebriates  of  this  genera- 
tion who  marry  and  raise  up  children  are  creating  paupers,  criminals 
and  insane  for  the  next.     They  are  wrecking  their  descendants  by 


1. 


/ 

I    I 


CROTHERS.  143 

crippling  and  incapacitating  them  to  live  healthy  lives.  Every  com- 
munity illustrates  this  fact,  and  the  drink  problem  is  more  complex 
and  difficult  of  solution  on  this  account.  We  need  scientihc  study 
and  instruction  on  this  point,  and  a  public  sentiment  that  will  make 
marriage  a  question  of  sanitary  science.  Then  we  shall  have  the 
means  for  practical  prevention  and  cure  of  many  present  evils. 

The  drink  problem  has  another  sanitary  side  in  defective  nutrition, 
bad  ventilation  and  other  conditions  of  an  unhealthy  character. 
Build  up  the  physique,  relieve  the  condition  of  starvation,  remove 
the  defects  of  unhealthy  living,  and  in  many  cases  the  tendency  of 
the  drink  craze  is  thwarted.     Mental  change,  unrest  and  sudden  ^^ 

change  involving  a  strain  on  the  organism  to  adapt  itself  to  the  new    S'l  V 
conditions  for  which  it  is  unfit,  overwork,  underwork  and  diseased    - " 
conditions,  defective  and  retarded  growths,  and  nearly  every  kind 
and   degree   of  mental   and    physical  defect,  enter   into  the  drink 
problem  and  must  be  recognized  and  studied.  , 

The  present  methods  of  dealing  with  this  problem  are  followed 
by  startling  results.     Of  the  800,000  persons  who  were  arrested  last) 
year  for  inebriety  not  one  per  cent,  were  benefited.     Over  99  per 
cent,  were  made  worse  and  confirmed  in  their  habits.     The  station- 
house  and  jail  are  active  recruiting  places,  and  the  hosts  of  inebriates  j 
who  are  forced  into  them  are  transformed  into  legions  of  incurables  j 
who  never  desert  or  leave  the  ranks.     Physically  the  short  impris- 
onment of  the  inebriate  simply  removes  him  from  spirits  and  leaves 
him  less  capable  of  leading  a  temperate  life.     Mentally  he  has  lost 
a  certain  self-respect  and  pride  of  character  essential  to  recovery. 

The  first  legal  punishment  of  inebriates  is  followed  by  a  species  of 
fatality,  seen  in  a  constant  repetition  of  the  same  or  allied  offenses. 
This  fact  is  so  apparent  that  these  cases  are  called  "repeaters"  in 
the  courts,  and  the  number  of  sentences  of  the  same  person  often 
extends  to  hundreds.  In  one  thousand  cases  confined  at  Blackwell's 
Island,  New  York,  935  had  been  sentenced  for  the  same  offense, 
drunkenness,  from  i  to  28  times.  The  first  sentence  was  a  regular 
switch-point  from  which  the  victim  was  precipit;)ted  to  a  constantly 
descending  grade,  becoming  more  and  more  incapacitated  for  tem- 
perate living. 

The  system  of  fines  is  equally  ruinous,  because  it  falls  most  heavily 
on  the  families,  making  it  more  difficult  to  support  themselves, 
thereby  increasing  the  perils  of  pauperism,  boih  to  the  victim  and 
those  who  depend  on  him  for  support. 


144  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

It  may  be  said,  and  the  statement  is  sustained  by  many  facts,  that  ■ 
the  legal  treatment  by  the  lower  courts  of  cases  of  inebriety  is  fully  . 
as  fatal  as  the  saloons  themselves  where  spirits  are  sold.  The  saloon 
and  police  court  are  literally  the  school  and  college  for  the  training 
and  graduation  of  classes  of  incurable  inebriates,  who  endanger 
every  sanitary  interest  in  the  country.  The  fault  is  not  in  the  courts 
and  their  administration  of  the  law,  but  in  the  laws  themselves,  and 
in  that  state  of  public  opinion  which  urges  that  all  inebriates  sh'ould 
be  treated  as  wilful  criminals  and  arrested  and  punished  as  such. 

Thus,  year  after  year  this  terrible  farce  of  prevention  of  inebriety 
by  fines  and  short  imprisonments  goes  on  and  the  incurability  of  the 
poor  victims  increases.     Crime  is  increased,  pauperism  is  increased, 
the  most  dangerous  sanitary  conditions  are  fostered,  and  the  burdens 
of  taxpayers  and  producers  are  increased.     The  inebriate  is  always 
debilitated,  and  suffers  from  impaired  brain  and  nerve  force;  alcohol 
has  broken  up  all  healthy  action  of  the  body.     In  prison  both  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  food  are  ill  adapted  to  restore  or  build  up  the 
weakened  organism.     The  hygienic  influences  of  jails  and  prisons 
are  defective  in  every  respect,  and  adverse  to  any  healthy  growth  of 
body  or  mind.     The  psychological  influences  also  are  of  the  worstH 
possible  character.     The  surrounding  and  the  associates  precipitate 
the  victim  into  conditions  of  mental  despair  from  which  recovery  is    \ 
difficult,  if  not  impossible.     The  only  compensation  to  the  inebriate 
is  the  removal  of  alcohol,  and  in  this  deprivation  the  state  most    I 
terribly  unfits  him  and  makes  him  more  and  more  helpless  for  the_J 
future. 

Thus,  while  civilization  is  one  of  the  sources  from  which  inebriety^ 
is  produced,  the  blundering  effort  to  remove  it  by  penal  punishment 
is  an  actual  factor  in  increasing  and  intensifying  the  disorder.  The 
treatment  of  inebriety  from  a  scientific  standpoint  has  passed  the 
stage  of  experiment  and  is  supported  by  a  greatvariety  of  experience  j 
and  collateral  evidence  that  cannot  be  disputed.  ^ 

Probably  the  largest  class  of  inebriates  in  this  country  are  without 
means  of  support  and  may  be  termed  the  indigent  and  pauper  class. 
This  class,  non-self-supporting  and  burdensome,  should  be  recog- 
nized by  law  and  committed  to  workhouse  hospitals  built  for  this 
purpose,  preferably  in  the  country  upon  large  farms  and  amid  the 
most  favorable  environment.  These  hospitals  should  be  training 
schools  in  which  medical  care,  occupation,  physical  and  mental 
training  could  be  applied  for  years,  or  until  the  inmates  had  so  far 


I 


CROTHERS.  145 

recovered  as  to  be  able  to  become  good  citizens.  Such  hospitals 
should  be  built  from  moneys  received  from  a  tax  imposed  on  liquor 
dealers  or  a  license  fund,  and  support  themselves  in  part  from  the 
labor  of  their  inmates,  and  be  independent  of  the  taxpayer  or  of 
state  support.  These  places  would  receive  the  classes  who  are  now 
sent  to  jail,  and  that  other  class  whose  numbers  are  neglected  until 
they  have  passed  into  the  chronic  stage  and  have  become  inmates  1 
of  prisons  and  insane  asylums.  J 

A  very  large  proportion  of  these  several  classes  could  be  made 
self-supporting  while  under  treatment,  and  in  many  cases  be  an 
actual  source  of  revenue.  The  hospitals  would  naturally  be  divided 
into  two  classes.  The  first  would  receive  the  better,  or  less  chronic, 
cases ;  the  second  would  have  the  incurables,  and  those  whose 
recovery  was  deemed  more  or  less  doubtful.  In  the  one  case  the 
surroundings  and  discipline  would  be  more  adapted  for  the  special 
inmates  than  in  the  other,  but  the  same  general  restraint  would  be 
followed  in  each.  In  both,  recoveries  would  follow.  A  large  class 
would  be  restored  to  society  and  become  producers.  In  the  second, 
cases  would  be  housed  and  made  to  take  care  of  themselves,  which 
would  be  an  immense  gain  to  society  in  economy  and  safety.  ^ 

Private  enterprise  should  be  encouraged  by  legislation  to  provide 
smaller  hospitals  for  the  better  class,  and  for  those  who  would  be 
unwilling,  or  whom  it  would  be  undesirable  to  compel  to  enter  public 
asylums.  Here  the  commitments  should  be  both  forced  and  volun- 
tary, and  the  restraint  combined  with  the  fullest  and  latest  appliances 
of  science  for  the  end  to  be  accomplished,  blending  seclusion  and 
good  surroundings  to  build  up  and  make  recovery  possible. 

The  first  step  is  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  inebriate,  whether 
continuous  or  periodic,  has  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  forfeited  his 
personal  liberty  and  become  a  public  nuisance  and  an  obstacle  to 
social  progress  and  civilization.     Second,  that  he  is  suffering  frono] 
a  disease  which  affects  society  and  every  member  of  the  community 
in  which  he  lives,  and  from  which  he  cannot  recover  without  aid  j 
from  other  sources,  making  it  absolutely  necessary  that  he  should  be  / 
forced  into  quarantine  on  the  same  principle  as  the  smallpox  or 
yellow-fever  patient.     This  is  simply  carrying  out  the  primitive  law 
of  self-preservation.    Naturally  the  money  to  accomplish  this  should  ~~7 
come  from  the  license  revenue,  on  the  principle  that  every  business 
should  provide  for  the  accidents  and  injuries  which  follow  from  it. 
Railroad  companies   and  other  corporations   are  required   to  pay 


^ 


146  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

damages  for  the  accidents  which  follow  their  business,  and  this  is 
conceded  to  be  justice.  But  to-day  the  tax  on  the  liquor  traffic  is 
used  to  support  courts  and  jails  where  the  inebriate,  by  fines  and 
imprisonment,  is  only  made  worse  or  more  incurable.  Thus,  literally, 
the  business  of  selling  spirits  is  increased  by  the  almost  barbaric 
efforts  of  courts  and  jails,  and  every  person  so  punished  is  made  a 
permanent  patron  of  that  business.  Against  this  all  the  teachings  of 
science  and  all  practical  study  utter  loud  protest. 

The  practical  success  of  workhouse  hospitals  for  inebriates  is  dem- 
onstrated in  every  self-supporting  jail  and  state's  prison  in  the 
country,  where  the  obtacles  are  greater  and  the  possibilities  of 
accomplishing  this  end  more  remote.  This  can  also  be  seen  in 
asylums  for  both  insane  and  inebriates,  in  the  various  sanitaria  and 
hospitals  through  the  country,  where  the  capacity  for  self-support 
and  the  curability  of  these  cases  are  established  facts.  More  than 
that,  these  hospitals  would  relieve  society  of  great  burdens  of  loss 
and  suffering;  the  diminution  of  the  number  of  inebriates  would 
become  a  practical  certainty  to  an  extent  of  which  we  can  have  no 
conception  at  present. 

It  is  impossible  at  the  present  time  to  estimate  the  beneficial  results 
that  would  follow  such  a  systematized  plan  of  housing  and  treating 
the  inebriate,  but  there  are  positive  indications  that  its  effect  would 
be  felt  in  all  circles.  One  of  the  great  fountain-heads  of  insanity, 
criminality  and  pauperism  would  be  closed,  and  a  new  era  would 
dawn  in  the  evolution  of  science. 


CAUSES  OF  PAUPERISiM  AND  THE  RELATION  OF 

THE  STATE  TO  IT. 

A.  O.  WRIGHT,  LATE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  STATE  BOARD  OF  CHARI- 
TIES AND  REFORM  OF  THE  STATE  OF  WISCONSIN. 

Pauperism  is  not  poverty,  which  is  generally  self-supporting.  But  it 
is  dependence  upon  alms  in  some  form  or  other.  Pauperism  is  there- 
fore an  outgrowth  of  charity,  paradoxical  as  thatstatement  may  seem. 
In  times  and  countries  where  no  alms  are  given  there  may  be  starva- 
tion, but  there  is  no  pauperism.     If  we  imagine  an  ideal  state  of 


X 


WRIGHT.  147 

society  from  which  all  want  is  banished,  there  would  of  course  be  no 
pauperism,  for  there  would  be  no  needy  to  relieve.  If  we  imagine 
another  state  of  society,  one  of  absolute  selfishness,  where  no  one 
ever  aided  another  in  whatever  distress  he  might  be,  then  again 
there  would  be  no  pauperism,  because  there  would  be  no  relief  for 
the  needy.  But  given  such  a  society  as  we  really  have,  one  with 
many  needy  persons,  and  one  with  much  helpfulness  for  the  needy, 
and  a  dependent  class  comes  into  existence  at  once.  In  this  sense 
pauperism  is  an  outgrowth  of  charity,  but  in  another  sense  pauperism 
is  actually  created  by  the  charity  intended  to  destroy  it,  because 
when  people  find  they  can  get  poor  relief,  they  are  inclined  to 
depend  upon  the  relief  instead  of  upon  their  own  exertions.  Pau- 
perism is  therefore  the  product  of  two  sets  of  forces — the  needs  of 
extreme  poverty  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  aid  offered  by  public  or 
private  charity  on  the  other  hand.  These  forces  act  and  react  on  one 
another,  and  their  result  is  pauperism  as  it  exists.  To  study  the 
causes  of  pauperism  we  must  study  both  the  causes  that  produce 
actual  need  and  the  causes  that  foster  factitious,  if  not  fictitious  need. 
Pauperism  is  brought  about  by  something  that  prevents  produc- 
tive labor  in  those  who  have  no  capital  laid  up.  The  following  classes 
of  persons  include  nearly  all  who  call  for  poor  relief; 

1.  Children  deprived  of  their  natural  protectors  by  death,  deser- 
tion or  neglect. 

2.  Old  people  past  work,  who  either  have  no  children,  or  whose 
children  are  not  able  or  willing  to  support  them. 

3.  Persons  sick  or  crippled,  or  broken  down  before  old  age. 

4.  Mothers  with  young  children,  and  women  about  to  become 
mothers,  who  are  widowed  or  deserted  by  their  husbands,  or  who 
were  never  married. 

5.  Persons  willing  and  able  to  work  who  cannot  find  work  to  do. 

6.  Persons  able  to  work,  but  idle,  and  willing  to  be  supported  by 
others. 

Of  these  classes  it  would  seem  at  first  that  only  the  last  class  is 
unworthy — those  able  but  not  willing  to  work. 

But  a  little  investigation  shows  further  facts  like  these.  Many  of 
those  who  profess  to  be  willing  to  work  are  not  willing  to  do  anything 
that  may  come  to  hand,  but  would  pick  their  work.  Many  persons 
now  disabled  from  work  were  disabled  by  their  own  vices,  especially 
by  drunkenness.  Many  women  with  illegitimate  children  are  not  inno- 
cent victims,  but  have  children  again  and  again,  only  to  give  them 


148  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

away  to  infant  asylums  or  to  public  officers.  Many  mothers  with 
families,  deserted  by  husbands,  have  made  home  so  uncomfortable  as 
to  drive  them  away ;  or  on  the  other  hand,  the  father  is  a  drunkard 
or  a  criminal,  and  hence  leaves  his  family  to  charity.  Many  old  people 
make  life  so  unpleasant  in  their  children's  homes  that  they  are  sent  to 
the  poorhouses  in  self-defense.  If  to  these  we  add  the  idleness  and 
improvidence  of  many  people,  which  finally  drifts  into  pauperism 
under  the  appearance  of  misfortune,  we  have  discovered  that  a  very 
large  part  of  pauperism  is  due  to  the  vice,  the  shiftlessness,  or  the 
crankiness  of  the  paupers  or  their  relatives.  Whether  we  call  these 
avoidable  causes  or  not  depends  upon  our  view  of  human  nature. 

But  now  comes  in  the  fact  that  giving  alms  very  frequently  creates 
pauperism.  It  took  the  Christian  world  many  centuries  to  realize 
that  almsgiving  might  easily  be  no  charity  at  all,  where  it  made  people 
depend  upon  it  for  a  living  and  created  a  breed  of  beggars.  The 
waste  of  money  in  lavish  almsgiving  is  the  least  of  its  evils,  the 
waste  of  manhood  being  a  far  greater  wrong.  The  evil  is  essentially 
the  same  whether  the  giver  of  alms  is  the  public  or  a  society  or 
an  individual.  Public  poor  relief,  especially  outdoor  relief,  however, 
is  subject  to  the  danger  that  it  will  be  used  for  political  effect.  By 
this  is  meant  that  the  local  officers  will  gain  votes  for  themselves  by 
giving  poor  relief  liberally. 

Over  two-thirds  of  the  outdoor  relief  given  in  this  country,  and 
possibly  as  much  as  one-third  of  the  poorhouse  relief  and  one-third 
of  the  private  charity  are  absolutely  wasted  on  persons  who  could 
support  themselves  if  they  knew  that  they  had  to  do  it.  This  class  is 
not  confined  to  the  cities.  In  many  places  in  the  country  lavish  poor 
relief  is  given  from  a  mistaken  idea  of  charity  and  from  the  petty 
political  ambition  of  local  officers. 

So  much  for  the  immediate  causes  of  pauperism.  Back  of  these 
lie  the  more  remote  causes  which  exist  in  society  itself.  The  ignor- 
ance, the  shiftlessness,  the  lack  of  self-respect,  the  vicious  habits 
which  are  found  even  in  America  among  many  of  the  poor,  being 
both  the  cause  and  the  effects  of  their  poverty,  tend  directly  toward 
pauperism.  Then  the  badly  adjusted  relations  of  laborers  to  their 
employers  produce  strikes  and  lockouts,  mobs  and  riots,  with  all  their 
attendant  miseries,  out  of  which  some  persons  drop  into  pauperism. 
•Worst  of  all,  there  are  families  and  groups  of  persons  who  are  hered- 
itary paupers  and  criminals,  who  live  a  parasitical  life  on  society  in 
some  form  or  another,  and  who  hand  down  a  degenerate  condition  to 
succeeding  generations  of  defectives. 


WRIGHT. 


149 


It  is  very  difficult  for  public  authorities  or  for  such  semi-public 
authorities  as  administer  large  private  charities  to  do  much  in  the 
way  of  preventing  pauperism.  They  can,  indeed,  refuse  to  relieve 
those  who  do  not  need  poor  relief;  but  what  this  amounts  to  is  to 
prevent  their  own  machinery  from  creating  pauperism  by  lavish  poor 
relief  It  is  not  in  any  other  sense  an  attack  on  the  abuses  of  pau- 
perism. But  so  greatly  is  poor  relief  abused,  that  cutting  off  unneces- 
sary relief  is  a  great  gain.  When  we  can  say  that  several  large 
cities  have  cut  off  all  public  outdoor  relief  without  any  increase  in 
the  demands  on  other  private  or  public  charities,  and  without  any 
apparent  suffering  by  the  poor,  it  is  obvious  that  poor  relief  has  been 
greatly  abused  and  that  this  particular  cause  of  pauperism  ought  to 
be  cut  off  by  those  who  have  created  it. 

Similar  abuses  are  those  of  keeping  in  poorhouses  able-bodied 
persons  who  ought  not  to  be  there,  of  bringing  up  children  in  poor- 
houses,  of  allowing  association  of  the  sexes  in  poorhouses  so  as  to 
breed  pauper  children.  These  are  ways  in  which  the  unwisdom  of 
public  officers  tends  to  create  pauperism.  Of  course  these  causes 
should  be  removed  ;  but  removing  them  is  not  preventing  pauperism, 
except  as  itprevents  public  poor  relief  from  itself  creating  pauperism. 

When  we  come  to  the  causes  of  pauperism  which  are  not  the 
results  of  unwise  relief,  the  case  is  quite  different. 

The  part  which  public  authorities  can  take  in  the  administration 
of  poor  relief  is  not  exactly  the  same  as  that  which  private  individ- 
uals or  societies  can  take,  even  when  they  cover  precisely  the  same 
ground.  Public  authorities  are  administering  funds  which  are  taken 
from  everybody  by  the  compulsory  processes  of  taxation,  so  that  while 
such  charity  is  voluntary  so  far  as  the  community  as  a  whole  is  con- 
cerned, this  charity  is  involuntary  and  grudging  on  the  part  of  a 
large  number  of  individuals.  The  minority  has  some  rights,  even  in 
a  government  where  King  Majority  rules  supreme,  and  their  right 
to  criticize  does  prevent  the  public  undertaking  many  forms  of 
charity.  And  then  there  is  the  tendency  to  reduce  things  to  an 
average,  to  treat  large  classes  of  cases  as  classes  instead  of  as  indi- 
viduals, to  work  by  easy  mechanical  methods  which  do  not  require 
much  care  or  thought.  These  tendencies  are  found  not  only  in 
public  officers,  but  also  in  the  officers  of  large  private  societies.  Such 
wholesale  methods  are  not  favorable  to  the  nicer  and  more  discrim- 
inating kinds  of  charity.  Again,  the  public  authorities,  and  also  the 
almoners  of  large  private  charities,  are  apt  to  regard  themselves,  and 


150  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

are  very  sure  to  be  regarded  by  the  recipients  of  relief,  as  simply 
givers  of  inexhaustible  funds  which  cost  them  nothing.  It  is  difficult 
for  them  toget  out  of  the  role  of  almsgivers,  in  cases  where  something 
else  than  alms  is  best,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  convince  the  professional 
recipient  of  such  alms  that  he  has  not  a  vested  right  to  help,  and  that 
in  the  form  of  alms. 

Most  cases  of  pauperism,  when  we  go  back  to  their  real'  origin,  are 
either  the  result  of  defects  in  society  or  of  defects  in  the  pauper. 

To  what  extent  society  itself  should  be  reformed  to  abolish  pauper- 
ism is  beyond  our  present  purpose  and  is  very  difficult  to  answer  in 
a  practical  way. 

But  to  a  certain  extent  reformatory  methods  can  and  should  be 
used  by  the  public  to  decrease  pauperism.     For  instance,  vagrancy 
and  tramping  ought  to  be  treated  by  providing  work  for  all  who  are 
willing  and  able  to  work,  and  sending  all  persistent  vagrants  to 
reformatory  workhouses.     So  all   mothers  of  illegitimate  children 
who  apply  for  poor  relief  ought  to  be  compelled  to  work  out  the  cost 
of  their  care  before  being  discharged  and  should  not  be  allowed  to 
give  away  their  children  without  good  reasons.     So  also  the  neces- 
sary regulations  of  a  well-managed  poorhouse,  such  as  careful  sepa- 
ration of  the  sexes,  compulsory  abstinence  from  intoxicating  liquor, 
requirement  of  light  labor  from  all  not  absolutely  disabled,  and  other 
similar  regulations,  make  a  properly  managed  poorhouse  a  reforma- 
tory institution.     Unfortunately,  a  very  large  number  of  poorhouses\ 
are  not  well  managed  institutions,  and  therefore  tend   to  increase  I 
pauperism  rather  than  to  discourage  it.  In  such  ways  as  these  public  I 
authorities  can  reduce  the  tendencies  to  pauperism.     But  in  general  S 
we  may  say  that  what  public  authorities  do  in  the  way  of  reducing  / 
or  preventing  pauperism  is  to  simply  prevent  their  own  machinery] 
from  creating  it. 

The  real  work  of  abolishing  pauperism  must  be  done  by  private"\ 
effort,  and  mostly  in  the  general  line  indicated  by  the  friendly  visitors  / 
of  the  charity  organization  societies.     What  the  poor  need  who  are 
on  the  verge  of  pauperism,  and  in  danger  of  being  drawn  into  that 
slough  of  despond,  is  "not  alms,  but  a  friend."     This  is  work  which,; 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  cannot  be  effectually  done  to  any  extent 
either  by  public  authorities  or  by  the  managers  of  large  semi-public 
charitable  societies  or  institutions.  Personal  work  is  the  only  effective 
agency  to  abolish  pauperism — personal  work  done  from  philanthropic 
motives,  but  guided  by  the  wisdom  of  experience,  and  felt  by  the 


M CALLUM.  151 

recipients  to  be  an  aid  to  them  in  keeping  their  places  as  self-sup- 
porting members  of  society,  not  as  a  substitute  for  their  own  industry 
and  prudence. 


THE  ENGLISH  POOR  LAW:  ITS  INTENTION  AND 

RESULTS. 

MRS.  MAY  M'CALLUM. 

t 

It  may  seem,  at  first  sight,  useless  to  inquire  at  all  minutely  into 
the  details  of  bygone  enactments  which  have  been  modified  or 
superseded  in  consequence  of  changed  conditions  and  habits,  but 
something  is  to  be  gained  by  such  a  retrospect  if  it  enables  us  to 
distinguish  between  those  social  difficulties  which  are  transitional, 
and  those  eternal  problems  which  perplexed  our  ancestors  and  are 
present  with  ourselves,  problems  which  have  their  roots  in  human 
character  and  exemplify  the  action  of  natural  laws. 

A  French  author  has  well  said  that  "  There  is  no  nation,  what- 
ever may  be  its  rank,  which  may  not  serve  as  a  lesson  or  an  example. 
Who  can  doubt,"  M.  Faucher  continues,  "  that  the  peoples  may 
gain  as  much  by  interchange  of  their  experience  and  their  ideas  as 
by  that  of  their  products,  but  such  an  interchange  must  take  place 
with  perfect  freedom  on  both  sides,  and  without  any  attempt  to 
control  or  to  misrepresent  the  characteristics  of  the  national  spirit."* 
These  conferences  are  a  concrete  expression  of  a  similar  opinion, 
and  I  esteem  it  an  honor  to  be  permitted  to  lay  before  an  American 
audience  a  brief  review  of  the  English  poor  laws,  which  chronicle  the 
struggle  of  centuries  with  perennial  evils. 

From  the  earliest  times,  four  fundamental  ideas  may  be  continu- 
ously traced  in  the  history  of  our  system  of  public  relief.  These  are, 
first,  that  the  nation  must  not  allow  any  of  its  members  to  perish ; 
secondly,  that  each  locality  should  care  for  its  own  poor,  and  that 
therefore  destitute  persons  should  be  compulsorily  removed  to  the 
place  of  their  birth  ;  thirdly,  that  vagabondage  and  idleness  should  be 
checked  and  punished;  and,  fourthly,  that  charity  should  be  largely 
exercised  in  mitigation  of  the  hardships  of  life. 

*  Etudes  sur  P  Atigleterre.     Quoted  by  Dr.  Aschrott  in  ^^The  English.  Foot 
Law  System.^'' 


152  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

It  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  brief  paper  to  examine  the  growth 
of  these  opinions;  but  among  their  proximate  causes  were  the  petty 
struggles  of  an  unsettled  time,  the  abolition  of  villeinage  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  the  ceaseless  efforts  of  a  warlike  nobility  to  con- 
trol the  labor  and  the  movements  of  a  peasantry  in  whom  the  desire 
for  freedom  was  deep  and  undying.  But  in  legislation  as  in  life  it  is 
the  unexpected  that  happens,  and  while  on  the  one  hand  our  statute 
books  from  before  the  fourteenth  century  teem  with  repressive  riieas- 
ures  of  a  stern  and  even  barbarous  description,  and  while  on  the  other 
hand  the  mistaken  generosity  of  the  monasteries  weakened  personal 
responsibility,  the  evils  that  law  and  kindness  alike  sought  to  repress 
grew  and  spread  like  noxious  weeds. 

Already  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II,  who  died  in  1399,  it  is  directed 
that  "  beggars  impotent  to  serve  "  shall  abide  where  the  proclama- 
tion finds  them,  but  if  the  townspeople  cannot  or  will  not  provide 
for  them,  they  "must  draw  them  to  other  towns  within  the  wapen- 
take," or  to  "  towns  where  they  were  born,  and  there  continually 
abide." 

In  1530  the  justices  are  to  give  begging  licenses  to  the  impotent, 
and  are  to  punish  "  persons  whole  and  mighty  in  body  and  able 
to  labour,"  who  are  vagrants  and  cannot  explain  how  they  live. 
By-and-by  sheriffs  and  local  authorities  are  to  "  charitably  receive  " 
the  poor  sent  back  to  their  district,  and  on  Sundays  and  holidays 
the  churchwardens  and  others  are  "  in  good  and  discreet  ways  "  to 
collect  alms  in  boxes,  and  to  distribute  them  "  without  fraud  or  affec- 
tion," so  that  "  none  diseased  or  sick  who  cannot  work  shall  openly 
beg,"  while  "  the  lusty  shall  be  kept  in  continual  labour." 

Wealthy  parishes  are  to  help  the  poorer,  a  proposal  that  is  carried 
out  in  London  to-day.  Again,  to  quote  the  quaint  old  phrases, 
"  curates  are  to  exhort  to  alms  with  such  talent  as  God  has  given 
them,"  and  when  it  is  found  that  they  "  gently  ask  and  demand  "  in 
vain,  the  spiritual  power  over  froward  persons  is  supported  by  tem- 
poral threats  of  imprisonment,  and  finally  a  tax  or  poor-rate  is  levied 
and  collected. 

Curiously  enough,  more  than  one  law  was  passed  for  the  purpose 
of  punishing  any  one  who  gave  alms  to  vagrants,  and  though  these 
statutes  were  naturally  inoperative,  they  arouse  a  lurking  sympathy 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  watch  the  manufacture  of  vagabonds  by 
needless  charity  to-day. 


i 


M CALLUM.  153 

In  1601  was  passed  a  famous  act  know  as  the  Forty-third  of  Eh'za- 
beth,  which  consolidated  and  to  some  extent  improved  previous 
legislation.  Both  praise  and  blame  have  been  freely  lavished  on  this 
act,  but  it  makes  little  change  in  that  fatal  system  of  interferfence 
with  labor  and  with  wages  under  which  the  English  nation  contin- 
uously suffered.  At  this  distance  of  time  we  cannot  judge  whether 
its  promoters  were  actuated  chiefly  by  motives  of  humanity  or  by 
the  promptings  of  class  interest,  but  two  of  its  clauses  are  of  high 
importance;  by  the  one,  the  duty  of  the  family  towards  its  aged  and 
less  fortunate  members  was  legally  recognized,  and  by  the  other 
relief  was  restricted,  in  the  case  of  the  able-bodied,  to  persons 
"without  means."  The  existence  of  this  ancient  and  most  wise 
limitation  proved  of  great  service  to  the  reformers  of  1834. 

In  the  year  1722  the  overseers  of  a  parish  were  empowered  to 
purchase  or  hire  a  house  in  which  to  maintain  paupers,  who  were 
not  to  receive  relief  in  any  other  form.  This  is  the  well-known 
workhouse  test,  which  at  first  was  productive  of  excellent  results, 
but  speedily  failed  of  its  purpose,  owing  to  the  scandalous  lack  of 
regulation  in  the  workhouses  themselves.  Such  institutions  may 
either  be  refuges  in  which  a  decent  amount  of  comfort  is  combined 
with  deterrent  discipline,  or  they  may  become  the  habitual  resort  of 
the  idler  and  the  ruffian,  who  are  there  supported  at  the  expense  of 
the  rates. 

The  eighteenth  century  increased  the  current  confusion  of  ideas 
with  respect  to  the  meaning  of  the  word/^<?r.  Instead  of  being  used 
to  describe  a  small  minority,  who  through  infirmity,  accident  or  mis- 
conduct have  ceased  to  be  self-supporting  members  of  society,  it 
was  placed  more  and  more  in  simple  opposition  to  the  word  rich, 
and  the  belief  spread  that  the  state  could  and  ought  to  provide  for 
all  such  poor,  including  finally  all  wage-earning  laborers.  In  1795  \ 
the  Berkshire  magistrates  actually  "settled  the  incomes  of  the  Indus-  ^1 
triouspoor,"  by  fixing  a  scale  of  relief,  inpursua'nce  of  the  instructions 
in  a  statute  known  as  Gilbert's  Act,  which  introduced  some  improve- 
ments, but  more  than  counterbalanced  them  by  reversing  the  policy 
of  Elizabeth  and  creating  a  rate  in  aid  of  wages  for  the  able-bodied. 
The  workhouse  test  was  abolished,  and  the  country  was  launched 
on  a  career  of  degradation  which  perhaps  has  no  parallel.  Relief 
was  bestowed  recklessly  and  in  various  ways,  sometimes  at  the  price  /  t^ 
of  a  few  hours  confinement  in  some  enclosure,  or  of  attendance  at 
repeated  roll-calls ;  allowances  were  freely  given,  so  that  wages  were 


154  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

kept  down  to  starvation  point;  sometimes  "head-money"  was 
granted  for  each  child,  and  immorality  was  soon  a  recognized  source 
of  profit ;  farmers  were  forced  to  employ  pauper  labor,  often  in  excess 
of  their  requirements;  and  to  sum  up,  the  man  who  would  not  work 
at  all  received  from  the  parish  as  much  as  the  honest  laborer  who  ^ 
toiled  his  day.  Family  affection  too  was  undermined,  and  the  parish 
had  to  pay  women  for  rendering  the  commonest  offices  of  humanity 
to  their  sick  parents,  who  were  accounted  "a  great  hindrance";  in 
fact,  the  general  demoralization  can  scarcely  now  be  realized.  Popu- 
lation was  artificially  stimulated,  land  began  to  go  out  of  cultivation, 
small  tradesmen  and  farmers  were  ruined  by  the  enormous  rates ;  and 
in  the  village  of  Cholesbury,  out  of  a  population  of  139  souls,  only 
35  persons,  including  the  clergyman  and  his  family,  supported  them- 
selves ;  the  remaining  104  by  the  assistance  of  the  poor  law  supported 
two  beer-houses.  Favoritism  and  fraud  were  rampant ;  one  man 
received  relief  in  six  parishes ;  the  laborer  had,  as  has  been  well  said, 
*'a  slave's  security  without  a  slave's  liability  to  punishment";  and  in 
many  places  the  paupers  began  to  enforce  their  demands  with  threats 
and  violence,  and  it  seemed  as  if  this  abominable  system  of  out-relief, 
with  its  vain  attempts  to  provide  "  fair"  subsistence,  were  to  prove 
the  ruin  of  the  national  character.  In  the  words  of  the  eminent 
American,  Francis  A.  Walker, 

"  Such  may  be  the  effect  of  foolish  laws.  The  legislator  may  think  it  hard 
that  his  power  for  good  is  so  restricted,  but  he  has  no  reason  to  complain  of 
any  limits  upon  his  power  for  evil.  On  the  contrary,  it  would  seem  that  there 
is  no  race  of  men  whom  a  few  laws  respecting  industry,  trade  and  finance, 
passed  by  country  squires  or  by  labor  demagogues,  in  defiance  of  economic 
principles,  could  not  in  half  a  generation  transform  into  beasts." 

Happily,  recovery  was  still  possible  ;  a  Royal  Commission  was 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  whole  subject,  and  issued  in  1834 
a  report  which  deserves  to  be  a  classic,  alike  for  the  student  of 
human  nature  and  of  economics.  The  fruit  of  this  report  was  the  act 
known  as  the  New  Poor  Law,  which  swept  away  the  worst  evils  by 
asserting  as  a  fundamental  principle  that  the  condition  of  those  who 
receive  public  relief  must  be  less  eligible  than  that  of  the  independent 
laborer.  The  workhouse  test  was,  with  certain  permissive  exceptions, 
re-established,  and  a  central  board  was  formed,  which  has  now  become 
a  government  department  under  a  president,  who  changes  with  the 
administration,  but  who  is  supported  by  a  highly  experienced  staff 
of  permanent  officials. 


M CALLUM.  155 

This  central  board  exercises,  through  its  auditors,  a  complete 
supervision  of  all  parish  accounts,  and  can  surcharge  the  local 
authorities  if  they  incur  any  illegal  expenditure;  it  sanctions  the 
appointment  and  salaries  of  relieving  officers  and  workhouse  officials, 
the  more  important  of  whom  are  directly  responsible  to  it,  and  are 
only  in  a  secondary  degree  under  the  boards  of  guardians.  Its 
inspectors  pay  surprise-visits  to  the  various  poor  law  institutions, 
and  as  they  have  power  to  examine  witnesses  on  oath,  their  reports 
are  of  great  value  and  interest.  The  whole  machinery  of  the  depart- 
ment is  devised  with  great  skill,  and  under  its  management  a  still 
larger  proportion  of  our  pauperism  would  have  been  abolished,  had 
it  not  been  for  that  English  dislike  of  interference  which  induces 
local  boards  to  disregard  the  London  authority,  and  prevents  that 
authority  from  rigidly  enforcing  its  own  rules. 

The  new  law  encountered  the  most  violent  opposition,  not  only 
from  the  ignorant  and  depraved,  but  from  employers  and  others;  and 
partly  on   this   account,  and   partly  in  consequence  of  seasons   of 
depression,  such  as  occurred  during  the  cotton  famine,  the  cholera 
year,  and  years  of  war  and  of  agricultural  distress,  the  progress  of 
improvement,  though  sure,  was  very  slow.     In  1838  there  was  "  an 
increase  of  more  than  50,000  depositors  and  of  above  ^1,800,000  in 
deposits,  in  friendly  societies,"  chiefly  in  rural  districts,  while  in  the 
three  years  that  followed  the  passing  of  the  act  there  was  a  gross  '/         <\ 
saving  to  the  country  of  ;^4,ooo,ooo,  much  of  which  was  spent  in  the  > 
wages  of  productive  industry.     About  twelve  years  later  our  third 
great  friendly  society,  the  Hearts  of  Oak,  came  into  existence,  and 
with  its  famous  predecessors,  the  Foresters  and  Oddfellows,  con- 
tinues to  increase  and  to  display  the  honorable  independence  and 
self-governing  power  of  our  wage-earners  when  they  are  uninjured 
by  sentimental  legislation. 

The  year  1870  marked  a  new  era;  fresh  interest  was  excited  by 
the  reports  of  the  poor  law  inspectors,  and  the  passing  of  the  Edu- 
cation and  other  acts  gave  a  new  impetus  to  progress.  Poor  law 
infirmaries  have  been  provided  for  the  sick,  and,  at  least  in  London, 
are  often  equal  to  the  best  hospitals ;  lunatics  are  placed  in  properly 
inspected  asylums,  and  children  of  destitute  parents  are  cared  for  in 
schools,  while  those  who  are  orphans  or  deserted  may  be  boarded 
out  in  carefully  selected  homes,  so  as  to  avoid  the  creation  of  that 
miserable  product  of  our  civilization  known  as  "  the  institution 
child." 


\' 


^ 


156  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

All  this  expenditure  presses  heavily  on  the  rate-payers,  and  the 
question  arises  whether  we  are  not  here  and  there  overstepping  the 
limits  of  a  wise  provision  and  offering  inducements  to  pauperism. 
It  is  also  alleged  that  the  extreme  care  bestowed  on  the  insane,  the 
epileptic  and  otherwise  afflicted,  promotes  the  increase  of  their 
numbers  by  prolonging  their  lives  and  partially  improving  their  con- 
(^dition. 

In  one  direction  a  salutary  change  has  been  effected.  Determined 
efforts  have  been  made  in  many  places  to  diminish  out-relief,  and 
consequently  to  lessen  pauperism. 

The  following  figures  illustrate  the  effect  of  twenty  years  of  this 
policy  under  the  direction  of  an  able  and  devoted  chairman  and 
board  of  guardians  in  the  union  of  Bradfield.  In  January,  187 1, 
there  were  in  that  union  1258  paupers,  or  one  in  13  of  the  whole 
population;  in  January,  1891,  there  were  only  149  paupers,  or  one 
in  no  of  the  population.  Twenty-nine  of  these  were  persons  who 
had  been  in  receipt  of  outdoor  relief  in  1871  ;  not  a  single  outdoor 
pauper  belonged  to  the  current  year.  The  money  rate  had  cor- 
respondingly fallen  from  two  shillings  and  a  halfpenny  to  fivepence 
farthing,  and  even  on  a  low  rental  this  difference  means  a  consider- 
able addition  to  the  free  income  of  the  working  classes.  The  figures 
are  equally  satisfactory  in  the  case  of  the  aged  poor  for  whom  so 
much  sympathy  is  felt ;  some  few  may  be  regarded  as  survivals  of 
the  bad  old  days,  for  the  New  Poor  Law  was  almost  inoperative  in 
their  youth,  and  these  no  doubt  helped  to  swell  the  numbers  when 
35.5  per  cent,  of  the  Bradfield  population  over  60  years  of  age  were 
paupers ;  that  figure  is  now  reduced  to  about  4  per  cent. 

As  one  writer  has  observed,  "  It  is  almost  entirely  a  question  of 
poor  law  administration  whether  4  or  "  (taking  the  figures  from 
Brixworth  Union  into  account;  "56  per  cent,  of  the  population  are 
paupers  or  independent  when  they  die."  In  some  of  the  Bradfield 
parishes  there  are  no  paupers  at  all.  Charity,  too,  has  become  more 
active  and  intelligent,  and  readily  provides  for  cases  of  undeserved 
and  exceptional  misfortune;  and  lastly,  a  careful  inquiry  has  shown 
that  it  is  a  mistake  to  assert  that  the  neighboring  unions  are 
unaffected  by  the  spirit  of  reform,  for  there  is  a  steady  though  very 
gradual  improvement  in  them  all. 

With  such  object-lessons  before  us  it  might  be  thought  that 
guardians  in  general  would  hasten  to  institute  similar  reforms,  but 
unhappily  there  are  signs  of  a  reaction  in  favor  of  relaxation  of  the 


M  CALLUM.  15;- 

poor  law,  and  it  may  be  that  the  poorer  ranks  of  the  democracy 
will  refuse  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  the  middle  class,  and  that 
the  old  lessons  must  be  learnt — and  paid  for — again.  Two  forces 
are  on  the  side  of  the  reactionaries,  the  Socialists  and  the  mass  of 
the  clergy  of  all  denominations;  for  so  do  extremes  meet.  The 
Socialist  naturally  tempts  the  improvident  with  dreams  of  state- 
regulated  labor  and  of  state-relief  on  easy  terms,  nor  is  the  Liberal 
press  guiltless  of  highly  colored  statements  that  picture  our  work- 
houses as  the  resort  of  the  deserving  poor.  It  is  in  part  owing  to 
this  mistaken  notion  that  the  conditions  in  many  of  these  institutions 
have  been  rendered  incomparably  better  than  in  many  homes  of 
workingmen,  and  that  new  efforts  are  being  made  to  modify  those 
restrictions  which  still  prove  deterrent  to  persons  who  live  habitually 
on  the  verge  of  pauperism. 

The  clergy,  as  of  old,  exhort  their  congregations  to  give,  but  they 
are  not  trained  to  understand,  and  therefore  they  cannot  enforce,  the 
full  responsibility  of  the  giver.  By  making  vice  and  idleness  easy, 
an  unwise  charity  directly  encourages  the  pauper  spirit;  and  in  all 
probability  we  owe  to  the  Salvation  Army  alone  a  large  increase  in 
the  number  of  persons  who  will  ultimately  come  upon  the  rates. 

Thus,  after  centuries  of  legislation  we  have  still  an  army  of  paupers 
that  diminishes  but  slowly,  and  an  army  of  vagrants  as  well.     For 
these,  provision  is  made  in  casual  wards,  where  a  night's  lodging  and 
a  meagre  supply  of  food  can  be  obtained — the  performance  of  a  task 
of  work,  and  increased  detention  after  each  admission  within  a  month, 
being  the  conditions  imposed.     This  system  has  proved  a  failure,  at 
least    in  London  ;  the  pressure  of  ill-inform.ed  public  opinion  has 
caused  the  rule  of  detention  to  be  relaxed,  and  the  multiplication  of 
charitable  refuges  and  shelters  defeats  every  attempt  of  the  poor, 
law  to  deal  effectually  with  the  vagrant  class.     Greatly  as  we  dis-^  • 
like  over-much  legislative  interference,  it  is  open  to  question  whether  ' 
our   irresponsible  and  uncontrolled  charity  does  not  create  worse! 
evils ;  it  undoubtedly  fosters  a  class  whose  existence  is  not  only  a  ^■ 
disgrace,  but  a  source  of  national  deterioration ;  and  here  we  reach  ( 
the  vital  issue  on  which  the  administrators  of  relief,  whether  legal  or  ] 
voluntary,  differ  so  profoundly.     Are  we  or  are  we  not  to  deal  with  '  \ 
the  needy  and  the  destitute,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  majority  of  cases,    ' 
with  the  incompetent  and  the  drunkard,  according  to  their  imme-    I 
■diate  desires,  or  in  the  manner  most  beneficial  to  the  community  at 
large  ?  • 


k 


158  PUBLIC   TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

On  one  side  are  the  reactionaries,  including  the  host  of  well-mean- 
ing and  enthusiastic  persons  who  are  swayed  by  the  appeal  of  the 
moment,  and  are  able  to  believe  that  there  are  royal  roads  to  happi- 
ness and  that  the  latest  big  scheme  is  a  panacea  for  human  ills.  On 
the  other  side  are  those  who  take  a  broader  and  more  carefully  reas- 
oned view,  and  who  attach  the  highest  importance  to  the  interests 
of  the  nation  as  a  whole.  I  venture  to  think  that  time  will  justify 
the  latter,  and  that  the  triumph  of  statemanship  lies  in  applying  the 
experience  of  the  past,  with  such  wise  modifications  as  are  required 
by  the  exigencies  of  the  present. 

For  your  great  nation  all  things  seem  possible,  yet  as  your  wide 
lands  fill  up  and  your  cities  increase  in  size,  the  old  problems  will 
inevitably  present  themselves,  and  happy  will  it  be  for  the  world  if 
you  can  solve  them  rightly.  It  is  our  hope  that  out  of  the  failures 
of  the  past  may  grow  the  successes  of  the  future,  and  in  organizing 
and  moulding  your  social  institutions  you  may  perhaps  find  helpful 
material  in  the  records  of  that  old  country  for  which  many  of  you 
evince  so  kindly  a  regard. 

Authorities   Consulted. 

British  Encyclopaedia,  last  edition.     Article  "  Poor  Law." 

Report  of  Poor  Law  Commissioners  of  1834. 

English  Poor  Law  System.  By  Dr.  P.  F.  Aschrott.  Translated  by  Preston 
Thomas. 

Poor  Law  Reform,  an  essay  in  Edinburgh  Review  of  1841-2. 

Report  of  South  Wales  Conference  (Poor  Law)  of  1892. 

Speech  of  Mr.  Bland  Garland  of  Bradfield  at  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Charity 
Organisation  Society,  etc.,  etc. 


POOR  LAW  PROGRESS  AND    REFORM,  EXEMPLIFIED 

IN  THE  ADMINISTRATION  OF  AN 

EAST  LONDON  UNJON. 

WILLIAM    VALLANCE,    CLERK    TO   THE    GUARDIANS    OF   THE 
WHITECHAPEL    UNION,    LONDON,    ENGLAND. 

The  history  of  poor  law  administration  in  England  is  an  instruc- 
tive one,  and  presents  to  civilized   communities  a  valuable  object- 


VALLANCE.  1 59 

lesson  in  national  philanthrop)'.  It  stands  as  at  once  the  conception 
of  an  earnest,  as  well  as  civilly  prudent,  people  actuated  by  humane 
impulses. 

It  affords  abundant  evidence,  through  the  centuries,  of  a  public 
concern  for  the  welfare    of  the  poor,  whilst  in  its  alternations  of 
severity  and  indulgence  is  seen  the  desire  to  prevent  public  relief 
from  degenerating  into  a  system  of  indiscriminate  almsgiving,  with 
all  its  attendant  demoralization. 

We  see  in  the  legislation  of  the  last  four  hundred  years  the  sway- 
ing of  the  pendulum  of  popular  feeling,  the  objective  in  one  case 
being  the  "sturdy  vagabond  "  or  the  "valiant  beggar"  who  called 
for  repression,  and  in  the  other  the  suffering  poor,  who  were  recog- 
nized as  having  a  legitimate  claim  upon  society. 

True,  mistakes  many  and  great  have  been  made,  more  especially 
in  the  administration  of  the  law  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  lessons  of 
history,  and  the  stimulation  of  modern  thought  upon  social  ques- 
tions, we  are  yet  face  to  face  with  the  unsolved  problem — how  to 
deal  with  the  poor. 

We  know  that  hundreds  of  statutes  have  been  passed  in  relation 
to  the  poor,  and  that  these  represent  mountains  of  speech  and  rivers 
of  ink  ;  and  we  think  we  are  in  a  position  to  take  larger  views  of 
public  and  relative  duty  to  our  "  neighbor  "  than  our  forefathers; 
but  human  nature  is  found  to  be  as  frail  as  ever,  and  so  the  best 
intentions  and  the  best  systems  fail  when  the  heart  is  allowed  to  give 
impulse  to  human  action  without  the  controlling  guidance  of  the 
head.  In  other  words,  where  the  administrators  of  relief  fail  to 
appreciate  the  fundamental  principles  upon  which  the  law  is  based, 
and  only  see  the  possibility — without  regard  to  antecedent  circum- 
stances and  prospective  results — of  ameliorating  existing  conditions 
of  poverty,  not  only  are  the  spirit  and  intentions  of  law  contravened, 
but  an  injury  is  done  to  the  poor  themselves. 

Without  attempting  to  trace  the  history  of  the  English  poor  law, 
which  is  as  well  known  in  America  as  in  England,  it  may  perhaps 
suffice  to  make  bare  mention  of  the  Poor  Law  Amendment  Act, 
1834,  which  was  founded  upon  one  of  the  most  remarkable  reports 
ever  presented  to  Parliament.  The  abuses,  the  rampant  evils, 
which  were  found  to  have  resulted  from  a  weak  policy  and  a  worse 
administration  of  poor  law  relief,  so  shocked  the  public  sense  that 
Parliament  was  induced  to  pass  a  measure  which  for  nearly  sixty 
years  has  remained  the  modern  landmark  in  poor  law  legislation. 


l60  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

.  That  it  was  founded  upon  sound  principles  is  universally  acknowl- 
edged by  thoughtful  administrators,  whilst  (coupled  with  the  report 
of  the  Royal  Commission)  it  remains  with  us  a  mentor  and  a  warn- 
ing. "  The  fundamental  principle,"  as  stated  by  the  commissioners 
in*  their  report  upon  the  amendment  of  the  poor  laws,  with  respect 
to  the  legal  relief  of  the  poor,  is  that 

"  The  condition  of  the  pauper  ought  to  be,  on  the  whole,  less  eligible  than 
that  of  the  independent  laborer.  The  equity  and  expediency  of  this  principle 
are  equally  obvious.  Unless  the  condition  of  the  pauper  is,  on  the  whole,  less 
eligible  than  that  of  the  independent  laborer,  the  law  destroys  the  strongest 
motives  to  good  conduct,  steady  industry,  providence  and  frugality  among 
the  laboring  classes,  and  induces  persons,  by  idleness  or  imposture,  to  throw 
themselves  upon  the  poor  rates  for  support.  But  if  the  independent  laborer 
sees  that  any  recurrence  to  the  poor  rates  will,  while  it  protects  him  against 
destitution,  place  him  in  a  less  eligible  position  than  that  which  he  can  attain 
by  his  owH  industry,  he  is  left  to  the  undisturbed  influence  of  all  those  motives 
which  prompt  mankind  to  exert  forethought  and  self-denial.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  pauper  has  no  just  ground  for  complaint  if,  at  the  same  time  that 
his  physical  wants  are  amply  provided  for,  his  condition  should  be  less  eligible 
than  that  of  the  poorest  class  of  those  who  contribute  to  his  support. 

Hence  the  guardians  were  restricted  to  the  relief  of  destitution, 
either  by  receiving  the  destitute  person  into  a  poor  law  establish- 
ment, or  (in  certain  excepted  and  exceptional  cases)  by  relief  in 
money,  food,  or  articles  of  absolute  necessity.  They  were  precluded 
from  the  payment  of  rent ;  they  could  not  redeem  tools  or  other 
articles  from  pawn ;  they  could  not  provide  at  the  cost  of  the  poor 
rate  any  tools,  implements  or  other  articles,  other  than  articles  of 
clothing  when  urgently  needed ;  they  could  not  set  up  a  poor 
person  in  business.  In  other  words,  they  could  only  provide  for 
present  existing  physical  wants,  and  could  do  nothing  either  to  pre- 
vent the  poor  becoming  paupers  or  to  lift  them  out  of  a  condition 
of  dependence.  The  "excepted  and  exceptional  cases"  to  which  I 
have  referred  are  chiefly  thqse  in  which  the  destitution  has  been 
occasioned  by  sickness,  widowhood,  and  old  age,  and  in  these  cases 
considerable  discretion  has  been  reserved  to  the  guardians.  But 
what  has  been  the  result?  It  will  be  admitted  by  thoughtful  admin- 
istrators that  the  legislation  for  these  "  excepted  and  exceptional 
cases  "  has  been  as  disastrous  to  the  poor  as  it  has  been  injurious  to 
the  community.    What  was  intended  to  be  the  exception  has  become 


VALLANCE.  l6l 

the  rule,  and  the  distinction  between  the  "  gift "  of  charity  and  the 
"legal  right"  of  poor  law  relief  has  been  lost  sight  of.  Without  due 
regard  to  the  causes  of  destitution,  or  the  consequences  of  relief, 
guardians  have  found  the  means  ready  to  their  hand,  not  only  of 
distributing  alms  out  of  compulsory  taxation  to  the  poor  who  parade 
their  "  legal  right,"  but,  what  has  been  far  worse,  relieving  the  rich 
from  trouble  and  concern,  and  churches  and  religious  bodies  from 
the  sense  of  responsibility,  in  regard  to  the  well-being  of  the  poor. 
There  has  also  been,  proportionately,  a  relaxation  of  effort  to  save 
and  redeem  from  pauperism  ;  the  poor  having  been  left  to  the  relief 
which  brings  degradation,  and  to  the  degradation  which  brings  the 
relief.  Thus  the  poor  who  might  have  been  saved  have  become 
paupers,  and  those  who  might  have  been  redeemed  have  remained 
paupers. 

In  the  case  of  the  Whitechapel  Union  it  has  to  be  observed  that 
it  is  a  district  largely  inhabited  by  the  poor,  and  "very  poor";  and 
that  (upon  the  basis  of  tables  contained  in  "  Life  and  Labour  in 
London,"  by  Mr.  Charles  Booth,  the  eminent  statistician)  the  "  lower 
and  upper  middle  classes "  of  the  district  number  6i  per  cent,  of 
the  population;  the  "regular  weekly  workers,"  71  per  cent.;  the 
"irregular  and  casual  workers,"  19*  per  cent. ;  and  the  lowest  class, 
which  includes  "loafers"  and  the  criminal  or  semi-criminal  classes, 
3!^  per  cent. 

In  speaking  of  the  poor  law  administration  in  Whitechapel  it  has 
to  be  admitted  that  the  policy  and  practice  of  the  guardians  prior  to 
1870  were  neither  belter  nor  worse  than  those  adopted  in  other  parts 
of  London  and  the  country.  Its  relief  system  may  be  said  to  have 
been  that  of  meeting  apparent  existing  circumstances  of  need  by 
small  doles  of  outdoor  relief;  the  indoor  establishments  being 
reserved  for  the  destitute  poor  who  voluntarily  sought  refuge  in 
them.  Able-bodied  men  who  applied  for  relief  on  account  of  want  of 
employment  were  set  to  work,  and  in  return  were  afforded  outdoor 
relief  in  money  and  kind.  Under  this  system  the  administration 
was  periodically  subjected  to  great  pressure,  so  much  so  that  the  aid 
of  the  jjolice  had  not  infrequently  to  be  invoked  to  restrain  disorder 
and  afford  necessary  protection  to  officers  and  property.  Police 
protection  was  even  at  times  required  for  the  guardians  during  their 
administration  of  relief.  The  experience  of  the  winter  of  1869-70, 
however,  was  such  as  to  lead  the  guardians  to  review  their  position 


1 62  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

and  earnestly  to  aim  at  reforming  a  system  which  was  felt  to  be 
fostering  pauperism  and  encouraging  idleness,  improvidence  and 
imposture,  while  the  "  relief"  in  no  true  sense  helped  the  poor.  It 
was  seen  that  voluntary  charity  largely  consisted  of  indiscriminate 
almsgiving;  that  it  accepted  no  definite  obligation  as  distinct  from 
the  function  of  poor  law  relief;  that  the  poor  law  was  relied  upon  to 
supplement  private  benevolence;  that  the  almsgivers  too  frequently 
were  the  advocates  of  the  poor  in  their  demands  upon  the  public 
rates ;  and  that  both  poor  law  and  charity  were  engaged  in  relieving 
a  distress  much  of  which  a  thoughtless  benevolence  and  a  lax  relief 
administration  had  created.  This  condition  of  things  the  guardians 
resolved  to  amend.  They  looked  forward  to  the  ultimate  possibility 
of  laying  down  a  broad  distinction  between  "legal  relief"  and 
"  charitable  aid,"  and  of  interpreting  the  former  as  relief  in  the  work- 
house or  other  institution  for  the  actually  destitute  and  the  latter  as 
personal  sympathy  and  helpful  charity  ;  and  so  they  began  by  gradu- 
ally restricting  outdoor  relief  in  "  out-of-work  "  cases,  until  they  were 
able  (in  1870)  to  entirely  close  the  outdoor  labor  yard,  and  it  has  not 
since  been  re-opened.  In  this  process  of  restriction  it  was  found 
that  about  one  in  ten  of  those  who  were  offered  indoor  in  place  of 
outdoor  relief  entered  the  workhouse,  and  these  in  turn  gradually 
withdrew  themselves,  so  that  eventually  the  indoor  pauperism 
resumed  its  normal  condition.  Following  this  was  a  further  review 
of  the  outdoor  relief  lists,  and  the  gradual  application  of  other  forms 
of  limitation,  side  by  side  with  efforts  to  bring  the  more  deserving 
within  reach  of  helpful  charity.  The  guardians  were  especially 
mindful  to  guard  the  entrance  to  the  outdoor  relief  list,  and,  where 
the  circumstances  seemed  to  necessitate  present  relief  in  the  home  of 
the  applicant,  it  was  sought  to  make  it  in  the  first  place  adequate  to 
the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  next,  temporary  in  duration  ;  and  it 
was  usually  given  upon  some  condition  of  personal  effort  to  avoid 
/future  recourse  to  the  rates  for  support.  Sick  men  with  families 
/dependent  upon  them,  if  not  offered  indoor  relief,  were  relieved 
/  temporarily  in  money  and  kind,  upon  the  distinct  promise  to  join  a 
I  benefit  club.  Widows  with  dependent  children  were,  in  some  cases, 
afforded  relief  out  of  the  workhouse,  for  a  strictly  limited  period, 
pending  inquiries  as  to  their  circumstances  and  possibilities,  com- 
munication with  relatives  and  late  employers,  and  efforts  to  place 
them  in  positions  to  achieve  independence.     In  some  cases  employ- 


VALLANCE.  163 

ment  was  offered  in  the  infirmary  as  a  scrubber  or  washer  at  weekly 
wages  ;  or,  failing  other  means  of  meeting  the  necessities  of  the  case, 
the  guardians  undertook  to  receive  a  portion  of  the  family  into  the 
district  school,  leaving  the  mother  free  to  enter  service,  or  otherwise 
to  provide  for  herself  and  one,  or  sometimes  two,  children.  The 
aged  and  infirm  were  only  relieved  out  of  doors  when  there  was 
evidence  of  thrift,  and  when  the  guardians  were  satisfied  that  there 
were  no  children  or  relatives  legally  or  morally  bound  to  support 
them  and  able  to  do  so;  but  even  these  exceptions  and  limitations 
became  non-existent  and  unnecessary  with  the  organization  of 
voluntary  charity,  which  gradually  undertook  the  benevolent  work 
of  saving  the  really  deserving  poor  from  the  poor  law.  Thus  the 
door  of  out-relief  became  gradually  closed,  and,  as  a  fact,  no  cases, 
other  than  those  of  sudden  or  urgent  necessity  relieved  by  the 
relieving  officers  in  kind,  have  now  for  some  twenty-two  years 
been  added  to  the  outdoor  relief  list  ;  and  now  (in  1893)  there 
remains  but  one  aged  woman,  the  sole  remnant  of  a  former  system, 
in  receipt  of  permanent  outdoor  relief.  As  illustrating,  too,  the 
limited  extent  to  which  relief  in  kind  is  afibrded  by  the  relieving 
officers  under  circumstances  of  urgent  necessity,  it  may  be  added 
that  the  average  weekly  cost  of  such  relief  last  year  was  but  i6s.  id. 

Although  no  written  or  printed  by-laws  have  been  adopted,  the 
guardians  have  none  the  less  fixed  rules  of  administration,  and  these 
fixed  rules  the  poor  understand  ;  whilst  it  has  been  as  clearly  seen 
that  to  "  play  fast  and  loose  "  with  the  poor  is  to  do  them  injury,  to 
encourage  reliance  upon  the  poor  law,  to  occasion  discontent,  and  to 
restrain  the  flow  of  helpful  Christian  charity. 

The  appended  statistical  tables  will  exemplify  the  gradual  nature 
of  the  restriction  of  outdoor  relief  and  its  contemporaneous  effect,  if 
any,  upon  the  indoor  pauperism.  Taking  the  sixth  week  of  the 
quarter  ended  at  Lady  Day,  1870,  as  a  starting-point,  that  being  the 
week  in  which  the  highest  pauperism  was  reached,  the  first  table 
will  be  found  to  show  the  number  of  paupers  relieved,  the  percent- 
ages of  indoor  and  outdoor  paupers,  and  the  amount  expended  in 
outdoor  relief  in  that  and  the  corresponding  weeks  of  the  intervening 
years  up  to  1893,  viz  : 


164 


PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 


Cost  of  outdoor  relief 

Indoor 
paupers 
relieved. 

Outdoor 
paupers 
relieved. 

Total  number 
of  paupers 

relieved 
exclusive  of 

Percentages. 

(/.  e.  in  money 

and  kind). 

During  the  6th 

During 

lunatics  in 

Indoor. 

Outdoor. 

week  of  ihe 

year  ended 

asylums. 

Lady-day  Qtr. 

Lady-day. 

(I) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

£   s.    d. 

£ 

1870 

1,419 

5,339 

6,758  (a) 

21.0 

79.0 

168    17     4 

6,685 

I87I 

1,219 

2,568 

3.787 

32.2 

67.8 

120   14     3 

6,073 

1872 

1,000 

1,568 

2,568 

38.9 

61. 1 

75  18     7 

4,730 

1873 

1.163 

845 

2,008 

57-9 

42.1 

50     4     5 

2,654 

1874 

1,154 

609 

1.763 

65-5 

34-5 

36  II     I 

2,114 

1875 

1,170 

346 

1,516 

77.2 

22.8 

2290 

1,406 

1876 

1,268 

186 

1,454 

87.2 

12.8 

16  19     7 

916 

1877 

1,203 

122 

1.325 

90.8 

9.2 

1229 

873 

1878 

1,221 

141    (^) 

1,362 

896 

10.4 

II     06 

731 

1879 

1. 43 1 

143   (^) 

1,574 

90.9 

9.1 

9  15     3 

592 

1880 

1,464 

128    (d) 

1,592 

92.0 

8.0 

9     7     7 

546 

188 1 

1,582 

121    (/>) 

1,703 

92.9 

7-1 

8   17     4 

528 

1882 

1,478 

105   (d) 

1,583 

93-4 

6.6 

7     611 

584 

1883 

1,482 

91    (^) 

1.573 

94.2 

5-8 

4     8   10 

521 

1884 

1,418 

77  (^) 

1.495 

94.8 

5.2 

429 

463 

I8S5 

1.370 

74  (^) 

1,444 

94.9 

5-1 

4     8     I 

309 

1886 

1.305 

70  (/;) 

1.375 

94.9 

5-1 

3     3     5 

167 

1887 

1,247 

61  {d) 

1,308 

95-3 

4-7 

2     7   II 

131 

1888 

1.356 

63  C-^) 

1,419 

95-5 

4.5 

2  10  II 

H7 

1889 

1,308 

46  (^) 

1,354 

96.6 

3-4 

V    15     7 

86 

1890 

1,258 

52  {/>) 

1,310 

96.0 

4.0 

I    16     3 

84 

I89I 

I.34S 

71  {i) 

1,416 

95.0 

5.0 

3     5     4 

77 

1892 

1.342 

56  (^) 

1,398 

96.0 

4.0 

2   14   10 

67 

1893 

1,518 

47  (^0 

1,565 

97.0 

3-0 

I    19     2 

72 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  1870  the  imbecile  paupers  were  maintained  in 
the  workhouse  and  are  accordingly  enumerated  in  column  i.  In  1S71  those 
paupers  had  been  transferred  to  imbecile  asylums  and  had  ceased  to  be  so 
enumerated  until  1879,  when  they  were  required  to  be  again  included  in  the 
return  of  indoor  paupers.  This  will  explain  the  sudden  diminution  in  the 
indoor  paupers  in  1871  and  the  sudden  rise  in  1879. 

(a)  The  figures  for  1S70  may  be  regarded  as  exceptional  to  the  extent  of 
about  2000  paupers,  there  being  at  that  period  a  severe  temporary  pressure 
upon  the  administration;  but  it  is  nevertheless  interesting  to  note  that  the 
experience  of  the  winter  of  1869-70  induced  the  guardians  to  voluntarily  sus- 
pend the  outdoor  relief  regulation  order  early  in  the  following  year,  and  to 
apply  strictly  the  principle  of  the  outdoor  relief  prohibitory  order. 

(b)  These  figures  include  30  boarded-out  children  in  1878,  36  in  1879,  42  in 
1880,  52  in  1881,  55  in  1882,  60  in  1883,  49  in  1884,  49  in  1885,  54  in  1886,  48  in 
1887,  41  in  1888,  38  in  1S89,  42  in  1890,  37  in  1891,  34  in  1892,  and  30  in  1893. 

The  following  table  will  further  show  the  mean  pauperism  of  the 
Whitechapel  Union  (classified)  in  each  of  the  24  years  ended  at 
Lady  Day,  1893,  with  its  ratio  to  population,  viz  : 


VALLANCE. 


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l66  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

These  progressive  results,  as  will  be  seen,  have  not  been  accom- 
panied by  a  proportionate,  nor  even  an  appreciable,  increase  in  the 
number  of  indoor  paupers  relieved.  Indeed,  there  is  to  be  deduced 
the  somewhat  remarkable  fact — taking  into  account  the  increase  of 
sick  poor  under  the  separate  infirmary  system — that  the  new 
departure  taken  in  1870  has  resulted  in  a  divtinution  in  the  indoor 
pauperism.  This  is  probably  owing,  in  part,  to  the  discouragement 
which  the  system  has  given  to  speculative  applications  for  relief,  and, 
in  part,  to  the  concentration  of  official  and  voluntary  effort  upon  the 
dispauperization  of  the  poor.  There  is  also  reason  to  believe  that 
the  policy  which  has  been  pursued  has  resulted  in  an  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  the  poor.  Rents  are  said  to  be  better  paid,  and 
more  money  to  be  deposited  in  savings  and  penny  banks  than  for- 
merly, whilst  publicans  and  pawnbrokers  are  equally  lamenting  the 
badness  of  trade.  The  poor  are  certainly  more  self-respecting  than 
they  were,  whilst  the  work  of  voluntary  charity  may  be  now  described 
as  more  personal  service  and  less  almsgiving.  So  uniform  and  strict 
has  become  the  administration  of  legal  relief,  and  so  well  understood 
is  the  system,  that  an  application  for  outdoor  relief  is  now  seldom 
made  to  the  guardians. 

Simultaneous  with  the  restriction  of  outdoor  relief  has  been  the 
endeavor  of  the  guardians  to  reform  their  indoor  administration  by 
making  their  workhouse  a  "  well  regulated  "  establishment,  and  con- 
tributory as  far  as  possible  to  character  and  self-reliance,  as  well  as 
deterrent  to  the  idle  malingerer. 

This  record  of  an  administration  of  the  poor  law  in  one  populous 
East  London  Union  has  been  rendered  possible  only  by  the  con- 
sistent adherence  of  the  guardians,  during  the  last  24  years,  to  the 
principles  which  they  regarded  as  sound  and  in  the  truest  interests 
of  the  poor,  and  by  their  determined  refusal  to  become  either  the 
advocates  or  patrons  of  individual  applicants  at  board  meetings. 
They  saw  that  by  the  out-relief  system  the  working  classes  were 
being  educated  in  dependence,  being  practically  told  that  every 
recurring  misfortune  or  contingency  of  life  would  be  amply  met  out 
of  the  public  rates,  whilst  they  were  demoralized  by  the  knowledge 
that  the  adversity  which  flows  from  idleness,  intemperance  or  im- 
providence would  be  rewarded  by  an  eligible  form  of  relief  out  of 
the  taxation  of  the  industrious,  thrifty,  and  self-reliant.  They  saw 
also  that  the  system  of  outdoor  relief  encouraged  reckless  and  thrift- 
less marriages,  husbands  and  wives  being  in  no  sense  brought  face 


VALLANCE.  1 6/ 

to  face  with  the  realities  of  hfe.  Employment  might  be  precarious 
and  income  small,  but  the  lesson  of  the  poor  law  too  frequently  bore 
its  fruit,  "the  parish"  being  written  against  all  such  contingencies  as 
"sickness,"  "births,"  "burials,"  "widowhood,"  "orphanage,"  and 
"  old  age."  It  was  also  found  that  the  practice  of  awarding  from 
public  rates  permanent  pensions  to  widows  with  families,  at  a  rate 
so  uniform  that  they  were  readily  calculated  in  anticipation,  and  so 
certain  that  they  were  received  as  their  due,  tended  to  the  relaxation 
of  those  habits  of  forethought  on  the  part  of  heads  of  families,  which 
are  essential  to  the  independence  of  the  working  classes ;  it  was 
wanting  in  the  elements  of  a  true  Christian  charity,  and  induced  such 
a  spirit  of  helplessness  that  their  misery  and  pauperism  became 
chronic.  In  Whitechapel  the  cases  of  widows  with  children  depen- 
dent upon  them  are  invariably  referred  to  the  Charity  Organization 
Society,  through  which  they  receive  present  needed  help,  and  they 
are  only  returned  to  the  guardians  in  the  event  of  absolute  failure  to 
meet  adequately  the  permanent  necessities  of  the  case.  And  here  it 
is  worthy  of  notice  that  this  policy  has  not  resulted,  as  might  per- 
haps be  assumed,  either  in  the  substitution  of  another  form  of  out- 
door relief  outside  the  poor  law,  or  in  a  very  special  increase  in  the 
number  of  children  maintained  in  the  district  school.  The  present 
number  of  children  of  widows  in  the  district  school  is  37  as  com- 
pared with  the  mean  number  of  418  widows  and  1010  children  in 
receipt  of  outdoor  relief  in  1870.  And  not  only  has  this  army  of 
outdoor  pauper  children  disappeared,  but,  as  a  fact,  notwithstanding 
the  addition  of  the  children  of  widows  to  the  indoor  pauper  roll,  the 
number  of  children  now  maintained  in  schools  and  institutions,  and 
"  boarded-out  "  in  the  country  is  less  by  36  per  cent,  than  the  number 
provided  for  in  the  district  school  23  years  ago.  With  regard  to  the 
aged  poor,  whatever  the  difficulty  in  applying  strict  principles  in 
their  relief,  experience  yet  points  to  the  corrupting  influence  of  a 
certain  provision,  out  of  public  rates,  of  weekly  pensions  in  old  age. 
The  system  operates  to  the  encouragement  of  a  life-long  anticipation 
of  a  "  parish  allowance"  as  an  eventuality,  if  not  absolutely  to  be 
desired,  at  least  not  worth  a  present  self-denial  to  obviate.  Nor  is 
this  anticipation  confined  to  the  pauper  himself,  but  extends  to  his 
children,  who  too  frequently  regard  their  payment  of  poor  rates  as 
fully  satisfying  every  claim  upon  them.  In  Whitechapel,  the  entire 
discontinuance  of  outdoor  relief,  even  to  the  aged,  has  been  rendered 
possible  by  the  establishment  of  a  "  Pension  Society,"  which  deals 


1 68  PUBLIC  TREATMENt  OF  PAUPERISM. 

with  cases  of  exceptional  distress  and  desert,  the  pensions  going  to 
the  old  people  "  by  the  hands  of  ladies  who  are  both  almoners  and 
friends." 

But  there  are  not  only  classes  of  poor  to  be  dealt  with  under 
normal  circumstances;  there  are  seasons  of  distress  arising  from 
a  scarcity  of  employment;  and,  whether  recurrent  or  exceptional, 
it  is  equally  important  that  the  administration  of  legal  relief  should 
be  uniform  and  clearly  understood.  It  may  be  that  some  relax- 
ation is  necessary  at  times  by  reason  of  insufficiency  of  workhouse 
accommodation,  but  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  the  poor  should 
know  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  relaxation  and  the  circum- 
stances under  which  it  is  permitted.  There  is  a  public  sentiment, 
especially  in  times  of  commercial  depression,  antagonistic  to  a  form 
of  relief  which  is  thought  to  have  the  effect  of  "  breaking-up  homes." 
It  may  therefore  be  interesting  to  state  that  in  the  early  part  of  1887 
the  Whitechapel  guardians  sought  and  obtained,  but  did  not  feel 
it  necessary  to  exercise,  temporary  powers  to  deal  with  applications 
for  relief  in  such  a  manner  as  to  ensure  the  preservation  of  decent 
homes,  to  afford  adequate  security  against  a  too  ready  dependence 
upon  the  rates  for  support,  and  to  relieve  undue  pressure  upon  work- 
house accommodation,  namely,  by  affording  outdoor  relief  to  the 
wife  and  dependent  children  of  an  indoor  pauper  so  long  as  he  might 
remain  an  inmate  of  the  workhouse.  Under  ordinary  circumstances, 
however,  the  system  which  seems  adequately  to  meet  the  necessities 
of"  out-of-work  "  cases,  and  to  be  at  the  same  time  conducive  to  the 
interests  of  the  community,  is  indoor  relief  to  the  head  of  a  family, 
coupled  with  charitable  aid  to  the  wife  and  children,  so  as  to  keep  a 
decent  home  intact.  There  would,  of  course,  remain  a  further  legiti- 
mate work  for  private  charity  in  saving  the  more  deserving  from  the 
poor  law,  and  encouraging  and  aiding  them  in  their  efforts  to  achieve 
independence. 

But  however  conspicuous  may  have  been  the  results  of  a  strict, 
consistent  and  unvarying  administration  of  poor  law  relief  in  the 
Whitechapel  Union,  the  records  of  the  country  generally,  since  1870, 
are  also  those  of  gradual  and  continuous  improvement.  In  that  year, 
whilst  the  ratio  of  indoor  pauperism  to  population  was  but  7.1  per 
1,000,  that  of  outdoor  pauperism  was  39.4,  and  this  may  be  taken  to 
be  the  then  normal  pauperism,  since  there  had  been  little  variation 
for  many  years. 


VALLANCE, 


169 


The  movement,  however,  which  sprang  up  in  that  year,  and  in 
which  the  Whitechapel  Board  had  the  distinction  of  taking  a  leading 
part,  in  favor  of  a  stricter  administration  of  legal  relief  has  produced 
the  following  striking  results.  Taking  the  quinquennial  periods  from 
1870,  the  ratio  of  each  form  of  pauperism  to  1000  of  population  in 
England  and  Wales,  the  metropolis  and  Whitechapel  respectively 
stood  as  follows,  viz. : 


England  and  Wales. 

The  Metropolis. 

Whitechapel  U 

nion. 

Years. 

1 

Indoor. 

Outdoor. 

Total. 

46.5 

Indoor. 

Outdoor. 

Total. 

Indoor. 

Outdoor. 

Total. 

1870 

7-1 

39-4 

II. 5 

36.0 

47-5 

16.6 

45.0 

61.6 

1875 

6.2 

27.6 

33-8 

II. 6 

20.3 

31-9 

17.0 

9.2 

26.2 

18S0 

7-1 

24.7 

31.8 

13.0 

13-7 

26.7 

17.6 

5-5 

23.1 

1885 

6.8 

21.8 

28.6 

13.8 

II. 6 

25-4    i 

18.9 

4-5 

23-4 

1890 

6.6 

20.7 

27-3 

14. 1 

1 1. 8 

25.9 

17.7 

4-3 

22.0 

1892 

6.4 

19.2 

25.6 

13.8 

10.8 

24.6 

17-3 

4.1 

21.4 

It  will  be  observed  that  notwithstanding  the  outdoor  pauper- 
ism in  Whitechapel  has  fallen  40.9  per  1,000  of  population,  /.  e. 
from  45.0  to  4.1  (as  against  25.2  per  1,000  in  the  metropolis)  since 
1870,  the  indoor  pauperism  has  increased  but  0.7  in  Whitechapel  as 
against  2.3  in  the  whole  metropolis.  Indeed,  the  fact  may  be 
accepted  that  no  increase  of  indoor  pauperism  has  resulted  from  a 
strict  administration  of  relief  in  Whitechapel,  since  a  comparison  of 
figures  is  not  fairly  equal,  by  reason  of  the  almost  continuous  increase 
already  referred  to  in  the  number  of  sick  poor  resorting  to  the  sepa- 
rate infirmary  in  recent  years.* 

This  fact  sufficiently  disposes  of  the  assertion  frequently  made,  that 
a  rigid  administration  of  outdoor  relief  has  the  effect  of  driving  the 
poor  into  the  workhouse;  but  if  further  evidence  is  needed,  it  will  be 
found  in  an  analysis  recently  made  of  the  aged  inmates  of  the  work- 
house (exclusive  of  sick  under  treatment  in  the  infirmary,  who  were 
assumed  to  be  in  receipt  of  the  only  form  of  relief  which  adequately 
and  humanely  met  their  necessities),  from  which  it  appeared  that  92 


*  During   the   year    1892   no  fewer   than    5,155   persons   passed  through   the 
infirmary  by  discharge. or  death,  as  against  3,202  in  1885. 


I/O  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

per  cent,  were  admittedly  "homeless,"  in  the  sense  that  they  were 
without  home,  furniture  or  relations  with  whom  they  could  live  out- 
side; whilst  of  the  remainder,  but  two  were  scheduled  in  the  "classi- 
fication of  causes  "  under  the  heading  of  "  destitution  apparently 
arising  from  misfortune " — as  distinguished  from  destitution  of 
which  "  intemperance,"  or  "improvidence"  had  been  a  contributory 
cause. 

But  perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  way  in  which  to  judge  of  the 
administration  of  relief  in  the  Whitechapel  Union  will  be  by  a  com- 
parison of  its  pauperism,  and  expenditure  upon  relief,  in  1870  and 
1892.  Thus  we  find  that  the  mean  numbers  of  iyidoor  paupers 
(inclusive  of  vagrants)  relieved  in  those  respective  years  were   as 

follows  : 

1870.  1892. 

England  and  Wales  156,558         186,607 

Metropolis  36,441  58,145 

Whitechapel  1.3 11  i>374 

thus  showing  an  increase  in  England  and  Wales  of  19  2  per  cent.,  the 
Metropolis  of  59.5  per  cent.,  and  Whitechapel  of  4.8  per  cent. 

Taking  next  the  outdoor  patipers,  the  mean  number  relieved  in  the 
above-mentioned  years  was : 


1S70. 

1892. 

England  and  Wales 

876,000 

558,150 

Metropolis 

114,386 

45.792 

Whitechapel 

3-554 

312 

thus  showing  a  decrease  in  England  and  Wales  of  36.2  per  cent.,  the 
Metropolis  of  60.0  per  cent.,  and  Whitechapel  of  91.2  per  cent. 

The  expenditure  upon  outdoor  relief  in  1870  and  1891  (being  the 
latest  return  appended  to  the  Report  of  the  Local  Government  Board 

for  1 89 1-92)  was  : 

1870.  1891. 

England  and  Wales  ;^3.633.05i        ^2,400,089 

Metropolis  412,817  184,118 

Whitechapel  6,685  800 

thus  showing  a  decrease  of  expenditure  in  outdoor  relief  in  England 
and  Wales  of  33.9  per  cent.,  the  Metropolis  of  554  per  cent.,  and 
Whitechapel  of  88.0  per  cent.  ;  or  excluding  the  cost  of  "  boarded- 
out  children"  (^543),  the  decrease  of  expenditure  in  outdoor  relief 
in  Whitechapel  will  be  found  to  be  no  less  than  96.1  per  cent. 


VALLANCE.  I J  I 

In  the  foregoing  figures  there  is  ample  justification  for  saying  that 
poor  law  reform  is  abroad  in  England  ;  whilst  in  the  earnest  and 
increasingly  organized  efforts  put  forth  on  behalf  of  the  poor,  the 
sinning  and  the  suffering,  we  see  the  stimulus  which  a  strict  adminis- 
tration of  legal  relief  gives  to  a  real  live  charity — the  charity  of 
personal  service. 

But  after  all,  how  much  remains  to  be  done!  As  yet,  the  fields  of 
philanthropic  service  have  only  been  entered.  Looking  at  the  giants 
of  evil  which  have  to  be  encountered,  especially  in  our  great  cities,, 
we  see  how  weak  and  impotent  is  disjointed  effort  in  the  cause  of  the 
poor,  and  how  increasingly  necessary  it  is  that  earnest  men  and 
women  should  be  found,  not  fighting  alone  with  puny  self-made 
weapons,  but  as  members  of  a  highly-trained  and  organized  army, 
furnished  with  the  very  best  arms  which  science  and  experience  can 
devise.  In  this  way  alone  can  the  great  work  of  serving  the  poor  be 
successfully  accomplished;  and  may  the  two  great  English-speaking 
peoples  be  found  in  the  forefront  of  the  fight,  waging  war,  not  against 
pauperism  alone,  but  also  against  the  various  social  evils  which  beget 
pauperism,  misery  and  despair. 

From  the  standpoint,  therefore,  of  an  experience  of  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  in  a  strict  administration  of  relief,  I  would  in 
conclusion  lay  down  the  following  propositions  : 

1.  That  the  duty  of  the  state  in  relation  to  the  poor  should,  in  the 
interest  of  the  commonwealth,  be  restricted  to  the  relief  of  actual 
destitution,  and  not  be  extended  to  the  alleviation  of  the  condition 
of  poverty. 

2.  That  legal  relief,  /.  e.  relief  provided  out  of  compulsory  taxation, 
should  be  at  once  adequate  and  humane,  and  yet  in  a  form^  which 
will  not  tempt  the  people  to  rely  upon  it,  or  to  induce  relaxation  of 
effort  in  making  a  more  eligible  provision  for  themselves. 

3.  That  the  only  form  of  relief  which  meets  these  conditions,  is 
that  of  maintenance  in  some  suitable  institution. 

4.  That  outdoor  relief,  or  relief  afforded  in  the  applicant's  home  at 
the  cost  of  the  state,  and  in  response  to  a  legal  claim,  is  and  must  be 
fruitful  of  evil  results  both  to  the  individual  and  the  community. 

5.  That  a  strict  administration  of  state  relief  implies  a  necessity  for 
organized  voluntary  effort,  in  saving  the  more  deserving  poor  from 
a  recourse  to  the  poor  law,  and  leaves  a  wide  field  of  service  for  the 
individual  discharge  of  man's  duty  to  man. 

6.  That  the  work  of  visiting  and  befriending  the  deserving  and 


172  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

suffering-  poor,  not  already  dealt  with  by  the  poor  law,  is  a  personal 
one,  and  cannot  be  discharged  through  the  agency  of  any  state 
machinery. 

7.  That  all  charitable  relief  is,  in  turn,  but  part  of  and  subsidiary 
to  organized  earnest  efforts  to  raise  the  standard  of  existence,  and  to 
develop  the  character  and  possibilities  of  the  poorer  classes. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE   LONDON   COUNTY   COUNCIL  IN 

RELATION  TO  PUBLIC  HEALTH  AND  THE 

HOUSING  OF  THE  WORKING  CLASSES. 

JOHN  LOWLES,  F.  S.  S.,  F.  R.  C.  I,,  F,  I.  I. 

In  submitting  to  the  notice  of  the  Congress  a  few  facts  connected 
with  the  very  important  branch  of  the  work  of  the  authorities  in 
London  which  forms  the  subject  of  my  paper,  I  may  perhaps  be 
allowed  to  preface  them  by  a  word  or  two  concerning  London  itself. 
Like  Chicago,  its  growth  has  been  and  is  extraordinary.  Its  popu- 
lation to-day  borders  close  on  six  millions,  whilst  the  yearly  addition 
thereto  approaches  one  hundred  thousand. 

Originally,  London  consisted  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  City 
proper,  an  area  of  668  acres  in  extent ;  but  the  present  county  of  Lon- 
don, over  which  the  London  County  Council  exercises  jurisdiction, 
consists  of  75,462  acres,  whilst  if  we  measure  London  by  the  extent  of 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Metropolitan  Police,  it  reaches  an  area  of 
nearly  700  square  miles.  Perhaps  the  latter  area  affords  the  best 
standard  for  comparison  with  Chicago  as  its  limits  are  defined  to-day. 
The  population  of  the  larger  area  exceeds  five  and  a  half  millions, 
whilst  the  smaller  area  contains  four  and  a  quarter  millions  of  people. 

Time  will  not  permit  me  to  trace  out  the  growth  of  the  govern- 
ment of  London.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  parish  is  the  unit  of  local 
government ;  and  the  vestry,  whose  members  are  elected  for  three 
years  (one-third  retiring  annually),  is  the  local  authority.  In  the 
case  of  smaller  parishes,  two  or  more  are  bracketed  together  for 
administrative  purposes,  under  the  title  of  district  board.  In  1855 
a  great  step  forward  was  made  by  the  passing  of  an  act  called  the 
"  Metropolis  Local  Management  Act,"  and  a  body  called  the  "  Metro- 


LOWLES.  173 

politan  Board  of  Works"  came  into  existence,  consisting  of  one  or 
two  representatives  from  each  of  the  vestries  or  district  boards, 
according  to  population. 

In  1888  a  still  more  important  step  was  taken  by  the  creation  of 
county  councils  directly  elected  by  the  people,  London  being 
created  a  separate  county  thereunder,  and  the  Metropolitan  Board 
of  Works  was  abolished.  The  London  County  Council  consists  of 
118  councillors  (elected  for  three  years  by  the  various  parliamentary 
divisions),  and  19  aldermen  (elected  by  the  Council  itself),  half  of 
whom  serve  for  three  and  half  for  six  years.  Women  ratepayers 
exercise  the  municipal  franchise  as  they  do  the  educational.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  creation  of  this  new  governing  body  on  a 
popular  basis  has  greatly  stimulated  public  interest  in  local  govern- 
ment, and  has  immensely  benefited  the  cause  of  sanitary  reform  and 
promoted  the  health,  comfort  and  happiness  of  the  people.  The 
various  drainage  works,  executed  at  the  cost  of  many  millions  of 
pounds,  and  the  ample  provision  for  dealing  with  epidemics  and 
infectious  diseases,  coupled  with  the  unceasing  vigilance  of  the 
authorities  responsible  for  the  department  of  public  health,  and  the 
drastic  powers  conferred  upon  them  by  acts  of  Parliament,  have 
combined  to  make  London  the  healthiest  metropolis  in  the  world. 

Some  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  work  of  main  drainage  alone 
may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  38  325,000,000  gallons  of  sewage 
were  treated  in  the  twelve  months  ending  March  31,  1892.  Exten- 
sive pumping  stations  exist  at  Barking  and  Crossness,  on  the  north 
and  south  sides  of  the  Thames  respectively  ;  and  the  sewage,  after 
being  deodorized  by  manganate  of  soda  and  sulphuric  acid,  is 
disposed  of  by  sludge  vessels,  which  deposit  the  solids  in  deep  parts 
of  the  English  Channel,  whilst  the  effluent  flows  out  to  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  care  being  taken  to  discharge  it  at  favorable  states  of 
the  tide. 

Various  schemes  for  utilizing  the  sewage  for  fertilizing  purposes 
have  from  time  to  time  been  made,  but  the  mere  pressure  of  the 
daily  task  of  removal  has  in  itself  prevented  hitherto  any  extended 
experiments  in  this  direction.  A  most  effectual  provision  for  secur- 
ing local  and  general  supervision  in  sanitary  matters  is  found  in  the 
medical  officers,  whose  fixed  departmental  appointment  in  every 
parish  or  district  is  insisted  upon.  These  in  turn  periodically  report 
to  and  are  practically  supervised  by  the  health  dtpartment  of  the 
London  County  Council,  which  is  fortunate  in  having  at  its  head  a 


174  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

most   capable   and    efficient   expert  in  the  person   of  Dr.  Shirley 
Murphy,  whose  work  is  beyond  praise. 

The  Council  has  recently  been  engaged  in  formulating  a  series  of 
by-laws  relating  to  matters  of  prime  importance  in  connection  with 
public  health  (a  copy  of  which  is  appended  hereto);  and  these 
by-laws,  on  being  approved  by  the  Government  Department  (the 
Local  Government  Board),  will  at  once  be  operative  and  have  all 
the  force  of  the  act  of  Parliament  itself. 

Further  powers  entrusted  to  the  London  County  Council  which 
are  intimately  bound  up  with  the  public  health  are  those  which 
•enable  them  to  inspect  and  license  slaughter-houses  and  cow-houses, 
to  regulate  offensive  trades,  the  inspection  of  dairies  and  milk-stores, 
the  provision  of  public  mortuaries,  the  appointment  of  coroners,  the 
securing  of  a  constant  water-supply,  the  slaughtering  and  removal 
of  animals  afflicted  with  contagious  disease,  the  prevention  of  rabies, 
•etc.,  etc. 

The  care  of  the  asylums  for  imbecile  and  insane  (of  whom  there 
are  some  ii,ooo  under  treatment)  is  in  the  hands  of  the  County 
Council ;  but  the  provision  of  accommodation  for  persons  suffering 
from  infectious  disease  is  entrusted  to  a  separate  body  called  the 
Metropolitan  Asylums  Board,  whose  work  has  materially  lessened 
the  mortality  of  late  years  and  proved  of  inestimable  benefit  to  the 
poor  in  preventing  the  spread  of  infection,  by  immediate  isolation 
away  from  the  houses  of  those  afflicted. 

This  latter  body  will  at  no  distant  date  probably  be  directly  con- 
trolled by  the  Council,  with  whose  officers,  however,  it  works  in  perfect 
accord.  It  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  exigencies  of  the  situa- 
tions in  which  administrators  have  from  time  to  time  found  themselves 
in  dealing  with  the  needs  of  such  a  vast  population,  with  all  the  accu- 
mulated sanitary  errors  of  omission  and  commission  of  preceding 
generations  around  them,  have  rather  retarded  than  advanced  the 
practical  realization  of  a  perfect  ideal  in  administrative  work,  inas- 
much as  the  necessity  for  close  attention  to  the  pressing  everyday 
requirements  of  the  present  has  left  little  time  for  perfecting,  har- 
monizing and  unifying  the  multitudinous  agencies  working  at  high 
pressure  day  by  day.  The  work  of  reform  in  every  department  of 
the  state  must  ever  be  progressive  and  never  can  be  complete,  and 
in  no  department  is  this  truth  more  manifest  than  in  that  under 
notice. 

It  is  a  matter  for  rejoicing,  however,  that  such  enormous  strides 


LOWLES  175 

in  the  right  direction  in  matters  of  pubHc  hygiene  have  been  made 
in  recent  years.  These  strides  were  clearly  and  profitably  demon- 
strated by  the  Congress  held  in  London  in  the  summer  of  1891,  in 
which  so  many  distinguished  American  professors  of  medical  and 
sanitary  science  took  part. 

In  England  the  study  of  sanitary  science  as  a  special  and  distinct 
subject  is  now  firmly  established,  and  no  candidate  for  appointments 
in  the  public  service  connected  with  health  matters  is  considered 
eligible  unless  he  possesses  certificates  of  competency  from  some 
recognized  institution  issuing  certificates  after  examination. 

Passing  on  to  the  work  of  the  London  County  Council  in  connec- 
tion with  the  dwellings  of  the  working  classes,  legislation  has  for 
many  years  been  directed  to  removing  the  insanitary  areas  which 
were  at  once  a  disfigurement  and  a  danger  to  many  of  our  large 
cities,  and  especially  of  the  metropolis. 

Various  Royal  Commissions  collected  evidence  of  a  most  appalling 
kind  respecting  the  condition  of  the  homes  of  the  poor.  So  huge  an 
evil  could  not  be  remedied  by  a  single  act  of  Parliament ;  but  all 
political  parties  being  agreed  that  drastic  measures  were  necessary, 
and  public  sentiment  warmly  supporting  that  view,  powers  have 
from  time  to  time  been  conferred  upon  the  local  authorities,  which 
have  largely  mitigated  the  evil,  and  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new 
era  in  this  important  department  of  social  life.  Of  course  the  effec- 
tiveness of  the  remedy  very  largely  depended  upon  the  zeal  and 
energy  of  those  entrusted  with  its  application.  Danger  of  laxity  in 
this  respect  on  the  part  of  the  parochial  authorities  has  been  reduced 
to  a  minimum  by  the  mandatory  powers  conferred  upon  and  exten- 
sively used  by  the  County  Council  since  1890. 

Under  the  Council's  auspices  a  rapid  transformation  is  taking 
place  in  the  metropolis.  Insanitary  dwellings  are  being  rigidly 
inspected  and  either  completely  overhauled  at  the  owner's  expense, 
or  ruthlessly  closed,  while  in  cases  where  the  closely  packed  build- 
ings did  not  admit  of  adaptation  to  sanitary  requirements,  they  have 
been  cleared  away  at  the  public  cost,  and  new  and  improved  dwell- 
ings, with  every  requisite  appliance  and  a  minimum  width  of  forty 
feet  for  each  street,  have  risen  up  in  their  place.  An  important 
movement  has  been  made  towards  inducing  workingmen  with 
families  to  settle  in  the  suburbs,  by  providing  cheap  and  speedy 
means  of  transit. 

The   Council,   aided   by   several    members   of   Parliament,   have 


\y6  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

obtained  special  concessions  from  the  great  railway  companies,  and 
on  one  line  it  is  possible  for  a  workman  to  live  iij  miles  out  of 
London  and  to  be  carried  to  his  work  and  back  by  train  at  a  cost  of 
twopence  (4  cents)  for  the  double  journey.  It  will  still  be  neces- 
sary, however,  for  large  bodies  to  reside  near  their  employment  in 
the  great  centres  of  London,  and  for  these  the  improved  dwellings 
erected  by  the  Council  or  on  the  Council's  land,  where  most  com- 
plete sanitary  arrangements  are  rigidly  enforced,  will  provide 
accommodation  well  within  their  means,  at  a  rental  of  two  shillings 
(50  cents)  weekly  for  each  room  occupied. 

A  most  important  departure  has  been  taken  by  the  Council  in  the 
erection  of  a  Municipal  Lodging  House  in  one  of  the  poorest  parts 
of  London  (Drury  Lane),  for  the  accommodation  of  poor  casual 
lodgers  at  a  cheap  rate.  The  building  is  perhaps  the  most  perfect 
of  its  kind  in  existence,  and  is  worthy  of  imitation  in  other  centres 
where  a  large  transient  poor  population  exists.  Its  erection  cost  some 
;^i6,ooo,  and  accommodation  is  provided  for  320  inmates,  at  a  charge 
of  fivepence  (10  cents)  per  night.  This  charge  includes  the  use  of 
spacious  day-rooms,  kitchens  and  lavatories,  of  appliances  for  cook- 
ing, and  of  most  comfortable  dormitories.  Immediately  it  was 
opened  it  was  filled  with  appreciative  customers,  and  it  is  hoped  that 
its  phenomenal  success  will  stimulate  the  Council  to  build  similar 
lodging-houses  in  other  parts  of  London,  although  it  is  probable  that 
if  they  do  so  they  will  reduce  the  capacity  of  each  house  considerably, 
as  it  is  felt  to  be  safer  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that,  apart  from  their  superiority  in  the  physical  comfort 
afforded  to  the  inmates,  these  municipal  lodging-houses  are  destined 
to  play  an  important  part  in  the  lives  of  their  inhabitants  from  an 
ethical  point  of  view.  They  can  easily  be  made  healthy,  well-con- 
ducted clubs  for  the  poor;  and  their  surroundings  are  such  as  to 
bring  back  or  preserve  that  self-respect,  the  loss  of  which,  from  one 
cause  or  another,  has  in  most  cases  been  the  chief  factor  in  bringing 
the  poor  creatures  to  poverty  and  degradation. 

From  what  I  have  myself  personally  seen  in  New  York  and 
Chicago  I  think  great  room  exists  in  both  cities  for  work  in  this 
direction,  as  also  in  the  whole  department  covered  by  my  paper,  and 
I  am  quite  sure  that  I  may,  while  tendering  my  thanks  to  this  Con- 
o-ress  for  according  me  the  privilege  of  contributing  a  paper  (imper- 
fect though  it  be)  on  this  subject,  be  allowed  to  say  how  delighted  I 
shall  be  to  supply  detailed  information  at  any  time  to  any  one  who 


LOWLES.  ,  177 

may  be  interested  on  this  side,  and  thus  reciprocate  in  some  measure 
the  uniform  courtesy  and  consideration  I  have  experienced  on  all 
hands  whenever  I  have  visited  the  United  States. 

LONDON  COUNTY  COUNCIL. 

BY-LAWS   MADE    BY   THE    LONDON    COUNTY    COUNCIL   UNDER    THE 
PUBLIC   HEALTH    (lONDON)   ACT,    189I. 

By-Laws  under  Sec.  16  (2), 

For  prescribing  the  times  for  the  removal  or  carriage  by  road  or  water-  of  any 
fcecal,  or  offensive  or  obnoxious  matter  or  liquid  in  or  through  London,  and 
providing  that  the  carriage  or  vessel  used  therefor  shall  be  properly  C07istructed 
and  covered  so  as  to  prevent  the  escape  of  any  such  ftjatter  or  liquid,  and  as  to 
prevent  any  miisattce  arising  therefro7n. 

1.  Every  person  who  shall  remove  or  carry  by  road  or  water  in  or  through 
London  any  fcecal  or  offensive  or  obnoxious  matter  or  liquid,  whether  such 
matter  or  liquid  shall  be  in  course  of  removal  or  carriage  from  within  or  with- 
out or  through  London,  shall  not  remove  or  carry  such  matter  or  liquid  in  or 
through  London  except  between  the  hours  of  4  o'clock  and  10  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon  during  the  months  of  March,  April,  May,  June,  July,  August,  Septem- 
ber and  October,  and  except  between  the  hours  of  6  o'clock*  in  the  forenoon 
and  12  o'clock  at  noon  during  the  months  of  November,  December,  January 
and  February,  Such  person  shall  use  a  suitable  carriage  or  vessel  properly 
constructed  and  furnished  with  a  sufficient  covering  so  as  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  any  such  matter  or  liquid  therefrom,  and  so  as  to  prevent  any 
nuisance  arising  therefrom. 

Provided  that  this  by-law  shall  not  apply  to  the  carriage  of  horse  dung 
manure. 

As  to  the  closing  and  filling  up  of  cesspools  and  privies. 

2.  Any  person  who  shalV  by  any  works  or  by  any  structural  alteration  of  any 
premises  render  the  further  use  of  a  cesspool  or  privy  unnecessary,  and  the 
owner  of  any  premises  on  which  shall  be  situated  a  disused  cesspool  or  privy, 
or  a  cesspool  or  privy  which  has  become  unnecessary,  shall  completely  empty 
such  cesspool  or  privy  of  all  fcecal  or  offensive  matter  which  it  may  contain, 
and  shall  completely  remove  so  much  of  the  floor,  walls  and  roof  of  such  privy 
or  cess'pool  as  can  safely  be  removed,  and  all  pipes  and  drains  leading  thereto 
or  therefrom,  or  connected  therewith,  and  any  earth  or  other  material  contam- 
inated by  such  fcecal  or  offensive  matter.  He  shall  completely  close  and  fill 
up  the  cesspool  with  concrete  or  with  suitable  dry  clean  earth,  dry  clean  brick 
rubbish,  or  other  dry  clean  material,  and  where  the  walls  of  such  cesspool  shall 
not  have  been  completely  removed,  he  shall  cover  the  surface  of  the  space  so 
filled  up  with  earth,  rubbish  or  material,  with  a  layer  of  concrete  six  inches 
thick. 


1/8  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

3.  Every  person  who  shall  propose  to  close  or  fill  up  any  cesspool  or  privy 
shall,  before  commencing  any  works  for  such  purpose,  give  to  the  Sanitary' 
Authority  for  the  district  not  less  than  forty-eight  hours  notice  in  writing, 
exclusive  of  Sunday,  Good  Friday,  Christmas  day,  or  any  bank  holiday,  speci- 
fying the  hour  at  which  he  will  commence  the  closing  and  filling  up  of  such 
cesspool  or  privy,  and  during  the  progress  of  any  such  work  shall  afford  any 
ofiicer  of  the  Sanitary  Authority  free  access  to  the  premises  for  the  purpose  of 
inspecting  the  same. 

As  io  the  removal  mid  disposal  of  refuse,  and  as  to  the  duties  of  theocciipier  of  a7iy 
premises  in  connection  with  house  refuse  so  as  io  facilitate  the  retnoval  of  it  by 
the  scavengers  of  the  Sanitary  Authority. 

4.  The  occupier  of  any  premises  who  shall  remove  or  cause  to  be  removed 
any  refuse  produced  upon  his  premises  shall  not,  in  the  process  of  removal, 
deposit  such  refuse,  or  cause  or  allow  such  refuse  to  be  deposited  upon  any 
footway,  pavement  or  carriageway. 

Provided  that  this  by-law  shall  not  be  deemed  to  prohibit  the  occupier  of 
any  premises  from  depositing  upon  the  kerbstone  or  upon  the  outer  edge  of  the 
footpath  immediately  in  front  of  his  house,  between  such  hours  of  the  day  as 
the  Sanitary  Authority  shall  fix  and  notify  by  public  announcement  in  their 
district,  a  proper  receptacle  containing  house  refuse,  other  than  night  soil  or 
filth,  to  be  removed  by  the  Sanitary  Authority  in  accordance  with  any  by-law 
in  that  behalf. 

5.  Every  person  who  shall  convey  any  house,  trade  or  street  refuse  across  or 
along  any  footway,  pavement  or  carriageway  shall  use  a  suitable  receptacle, 
cart,  carriage  or  other  means  of  conveyance  properly  constructed  so  as  to  pre- 
vent the  escape  of  the  contents  thereof,  and,  in  the  case  of  offensive  refuse,  so 
covered  as  to  prevent  any  nuisance  therefrom,  and  shall  adopt  such  other  pre- 
cautions as  may  be  necessary  to  prevent  any  such  refuse  from  being  slopped 
or  spilled,  or  from  falling  in  the  process  of  removal  upon  such  footway,  pave- 
ment or  carriageway. 

If  in  the  process  of  such  removal  any  such  refuse  be  slopped  or  spilled,  or  fall 
upon  such  footway,  pavement  or  carriageway,  such  person  shall  forthwith 
remove  such  refuse  from  the  place  whereon  the  same  may  have  been  slopped 
or  spilled,  or  may  have  fallen,  and  shall  immediately  thereafter  thoroughly 
sweep  or  otherwise  thoroughly  cleanse  such  place, 

6.  Where  a  Sanitary  Authority  shall  arrange  for  the  daily  removal  of  house 
refuse  in  their  district  or  in  any  part  thereof,  the  occupier  of  any  premises  in 
such  district  or  part  thereof  on  which  any  house  refuse  may  from  time  to  time 
accumulate  shall,  at  such  hour  of  the  day  as  the  Sanitary  Authority  shall  fix 
and  notify  by  public  announcement  in  their  district,  deposit  on  the  kerbstone 
or  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  footpath  immediately  in  front  of  the  house  or  in  a 
conveniently  accessible  position  on  the  premises,  as  the  Sanitary  Authority 
may  prescribe  by  written  notice  served  upon  the  occupier,  a  movable  recepta- 
cle, in  which  shall  be  placed,  for  the  purposes  of  removal  by  or  on  behalf  of 
the  Sanitary  Authority,  the  house  refuse  which  has  accumulated  on  such  prem- 
ises since  the  preceding  collection  by  such  authority. 


LOWLES.  179 

The  Sanitary  Authority  shall  collect  such  refuse,  or  cause  the  same  to  be 
collected,  between  such  hours  of  the  day  as  they  have  fixed  and  notified  by 
public  announcement  in  their  district. 

7.  The  Sanitary  Authority  shall  cause  to  be  removed  not  less  frequently 
than  once  in  every  week  the  house  refuse  produced  on  all  premises  within  their 
district. 

8.  Where,  for  the  purposes  of  subsequent  removal,  any  cargo,  load,  or 
collection  of  offensive  refuse  has  been  temporarily  brought  to  or  deposited  in 
any  place  within  a  sanitary  district,  the  owner  (whether  a  Sanitary  Authority 
or  any  other  person)  or  consignee  of  such  cargo,  load  or  collection  of  refuse, 
or  any  person  who  may  have  undertaken  to  deliver  the  same,  or  who  is  in 
charge  of  the  same,  shall  not  without  a  reasonable  excuse  permit  or  allow  or 
cause  such  refuse  to  remain  in  such  place  for  a  longer  period  than  twenty-four 
hours. 

Provided  {a)  that  this  by-law  shall  not  apply  in  cases  where  the  place  of 
temporary  deposit  is  distant  at  least  one  hundred  yards  from  any  street,  and  is 
distant  at  least  three  hundred  yards  from  any  building  or  premises  used  wholly 
or  partly  for  human  habitation,  or  as  a  school,  or  as  a  place  of  public  worship 
or  of  public  resort  or  public  assembly,  or  from  any  building  or  premises  in  or 
on  which  any  person  may  be  employed  in  any  manufacture,  trade  or  business, 
or  from  any  public  park  or  other  open  space  dedicated  or  used  for  the  purposes 
of  recreation,  or  from  any  reservoir  or  stream  used  for  the  purposes  of 
domestic  water  supply  ;  {l>)  that  this  by-law  shall  not  prohibit  the  deposit, 
within  the  prescribed  distances,  of  road  slop  unmixed  with  stable  manure  for 
any  period  not  exceeding  one  week,  which  maybe  necessary  for  the  separation 
of  water  therefrom. 

9.  Where  a  Sanitary  Authority  or  some  person  on  their  behalf  shall  remove 
any  offensive  refuse  from  any  street  or  premises  within  their  district,  such 
Sanitary  Authority  or  such  person  shall  properly  destroy  by  fire  or  otherwise 
dispose  of  such  refuse  in  such  manner  as  to  prevent  nuisance. 

Provided  always  that  this  by-law  shall  not  be  deemed  to  require  or  permit 
any  Sanitary  Authority  or  person  to  dispose  of  or  destroy  by  fire  any  night- 
soil,  swine's  dung  or  cow-dung. 

10.  A  Sanitary  Authority  or  any  person  on  their  behalf  who  shall  remove 
any  offensive  refuse  from  any  street  or  premises  within  their  district  shall  not 

•  deposit  such  refuse,  otherwise  than  in  the  course  of  removal,  at  a  less  distance 
than  three  hundred  yards  from  any  two  or  more  buildings  used  wholly  or  partly 
for  human  habitation,  or  from  any  building  used  as  a  school,  or  as  a  place  of 
public  resort  or  public  assembly,  or  in  which  any  person  may  be  employed  in 
any  manufacture,  trade  or  business,  or  from  any  public  park  or  other  open 
space  dedicated  or  used  for  the  purpose  of  recreation,  or  from  any  reservoir  or 
stream  used  for  the  purpose  of  domestic  water  supply. 

Provided  always  that  this  by-law  shall  not  be  deemed  to  prohibit  such 
deposit  of  such  refuse  for  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours,  when  such  refuse  is 
deposited  for  the  purpose  of  being  destroyed  by  fire,  in  accordance  with  any 
by-law  in  that  behalf. 


l80  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

11.  For  the  purposes  of  the  foregoing  by-laws  the  expression  "offensive 
refuse  "  means  any  refuse,  whether  "  house  refuse,"  "  trade  refuse,"  or  "  street 
refuse  "  in  such  a  condition  as  to  be  or  to  be  liable  to  become  offensive. 

Penalties. 

12.  Every  person  who  shall  offend  against  any  of  the  foregoing  by-laws  shall 
be  liable  for  every  such  offense  to  a  penalty  of  five  pounds,  and  in  the  case  of 
a  continuing  offense  to  a  further  penalty  of  forty  shillings  for  each  day  after 
written  notice  of  the  offense  from  the  Sanitary  Authority.  Provided  neverthe- 
less that  the  court  before  whom  any  complaint  may  be  made,  or  any  proceed- 
ings may  be  taken  in  respect  of  any  such  offense,  may,  if  the  court  think  fit, 
adjudge  the  payment  as  a  penalty  of  any  sum  less  than  the  full  amount  of  the 
penalty  imposed  by  this  by-law. 

By-Laws  under  Section  39  (i). 

With  respect  to  ivaterclosets,  earthclosets,  privies,  ashpits,  cesspools,  and  recep- 
tacles for  dung,  and  the  proper  accessories  thereof  i7i  connection  with  buildings, 
whether  constructed  before  or  after  the  passing  of  this  Act. 

1.  Every  person  who  shall  hereafter  construct  a  watercloset  orearthcloset  in 
connection  with  a  building,  shall  construct  such  watercloset  or  earthcloset  in 
such  a  position  that,  in  the  case  of  a  watercloset,  one  of  its  sides  at  the  least 
shall  be  an  external  wall,  and  in  the  case  of  an  earthcloset  two  of  its  sides  at 
the  least  shall  be  external  walls,  which  external  wall  or  walls  shall  abut  imme- 
diately upon  the  street,  or  upon  a  yard  or  garden  or  open  space  of  not  less 
than  one  hundred  square  feet  of  superficial  area,  measured  horizontally  at  a 
point  below  the  level  of  the  floor  of  such  closet.  He  shall  not  construct  any 
such  watercloset  so  that  it  is  approached  directly  from  any  room  used  for  the 
purpose  of  human  habitation,  or  used  for  the  manufacture,  preparation,  or 
storage  of  food  for  man,  or  used  as  a  factory,  workshop,  or  workplace,  nor  shall 
he  construct  any  earthcloset  so  that  it  can  be  entered  otherwise  than  from 
the  external  air. 

He  shall  construct  such  watercloset  so  that  on  any  side  on  which  it  would 
abut  on  a  room  intended  for  human  habitation,  or  used  as  a  factory,  workshop, 
or  workplace,  it  shall  be  enclosed  by  a  solid  wall  or  partition  of  brick  or  other 
materials,  extending  the  entire  height  from  the  floor  to  the  ceiling. 

He  shall  provide  any  such  watercloset  that  is  approached  from  the  external 
air  with  a  floor  of  hard  smooth  impervious  material,  having  a  fall  to  the  door 
of  such  watercloset  of  half  an  inch  to  the  foot. 

He  shall  provide  such  watercloset  with  proper  doors  and  fastenings. 

Provided  always  that  this  by-law  shall  not  apply  to  any  watercloset  con- 
structed below  the  surface  of  the  ground  and  approached  directly  from  an  area 
or  other  open  space  available  for  purposes  of  ventilation,  measuring  at  least 
forty  superficial  feet  in  extent,  and  having  a  distance  across  of  not  less  than 
five  feet,  and  not  covered  in  otherwise  than  by  a  grating  or  railing. 

2.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  watercloset  in  connection  with  a  build- 
ing, whether  the  situation  of  such  watercloset  be  or  be  not  within  or  partly  within 


LOWLES.  l8l 

such  building,  and  every  person  who  shall  construct  an  earthcloset  in  connec- 
tion with  a  building,  shall  construct  in  one  of  the  walls  of  such  watercloset  or 
earthcloset  which  shall  abut  upon  the  public  way,  yard,  garden,  or  open  space, 
as  provided  by  the  preceding  by-law,  a  window  of  such  dimensions  that  an 
area  of  not  less  than  two  square  feet,  which  may  be  the  whole  or  part  of  such 
window,  shall  open  directly  into  the  external  air. 

He  shall  in  addition  to  such  window,  cause  such  watercloset  or  earthcloset 
to  be  provided  with  adequate  means  of  constant  ventilation  by  at  least  one  air- 
brick built  in  an  external  wall  of  such  watercloset  or  earthcloset,  or  by  an  air- 
shaft,  or  by  some  other  effectual  method  or  appliance. 

3,  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  watercloset  in  connection  with  a  build- 
ing, shall  furnish  such  watercloset  with  a  cistern  of  adequate  capacity  for  the 
purpose  of  flushing,  which  shall  be  separate  and  distinct  from  any  cistern  used 
for  drinking  purposes,  and  shall  be  so  constructed,  fitted,  and  placed  as  to 
admit  of  the  supply  of  water  for  use  in  such  watercloset  so  that  there  shall  not 
be  any  direct  connection  between  any  service  pipe  upon  the  premises  and  any 
part  of  the  apparatus  of  such  watercloset  other  than  such  flushing  cistern. 

Provided  always  that  the  foregoing  requirement  shall  be  deemed  to  be  com- 
plied with  in  any  case  where  the  apparatus  of  a  watercloset  is  connected  for 
the  purpose  of  flushing  with  a  cistern  of  adequate  capacity  which  is  used  solely 
for  flushing  waterclosets  or  urinals. 

He  shall  cause  every  flushing  cistern  that  may  be  of  such  a  kind  as  to  be 
emptied  .at  one  pull  of  the  flushing  apparatus  to  be  so  constructed  that  the 
inlet  for  water  shall  be  capable  of  charging  the  cistern  in  not  less  than  one 
minute. 

He  shall  construct  or  fix  the  pipe  and  union  connecting  such  flushing  cistern 
with  the  pan,  basin,  or  other  receptacle  with  which  such  watercloset  may  be 
provided,  so  that  such  pipe  and  union  shall  not  in  any  part  have  an  internal 
diameter  of  less  than  one  inch  and  a  quarter. 

He  shall  furnish  such  watercloset  with  a  suitable  apparatus  for  the  effectual 
application  of  water  to  any  pan,  basin,  or  other  receptacle  with  which  such 
apparatus  may  be  connected  and  used,  and  for  the  effectual  flushing  and  cleans- 
ing of  such  pan,  basin,  or  other  receptacle,  and  for  the  prompt  and  effectual 
removal  therefrom  and  from  the  trap  connected  therewith  of  any  solid  or  liquid 
filth  which  may  from  time  to  time  be  deposited  therein. 

He  shall  furnish  such  watercloset  with  a  pan,  basin,  or  other  suitable  recep- 
tacle of  non-absorbent  material,  and  of  such  shape,  of  such  capacity,  and  of 
such  mode  of  construction  as  to  receive  and  contain  a  sufiicient  quantity  of 
water,  and  to  allow  all  filth  which  may  from  time  to  time  be  deposited  in  such 
pan,  basin,  or  receptacle,  to  fall  free  of  the  sides  thereof  and  directly  into  the 
water  received  and  contained  in  such  pan,  basin,  or  receptacle. 

He  shall  not  construct  or  fix  under  such  pan,  basin,  or  receptacle,  any  "  con- 
tainer" or  other  similar  fitting. 

He  shall  construct  or  fix  immediately  beneath  or  in  connection  with  such 
pan,  basin,  or  other  suitable  receptacle,  an  efficient  siphon  trap,  so  constructed 
that  it  shall  at  all  times  maintain  a  sufficient  water  seal  between  such  pan, 


1 82  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

basin,  or  other  suitable  receptacle  and  any  drain  or  soil  pipe  in  connection 
therewith.  He  shall  not  construct  or  fix  in  or  in  connection  with  the  watercloset 
apparatus  any  D  trap  or  other  similar  trap. 

If  he  shall  construct  any  watercloset  or  shall  fix  or  fit  any  trap  to  any  exist- 
ing watercloset  or  in  connection  with  a  soil  pipe,  which  is  itself  in  connection 
with  any  other  watercloset,  he  shall  cause  the  trap  of  every  such  watercloset 
to  be  ventilated  into  the  open  air  at  a  point  as  high  as  the  top  of  the  soil  pipe, 
or  into  the  soil  pipe  at  a  point  above  the  highest  watercloset  connected  with 
such  soil  pipe,  and  so  that  such  ventilating  pipe  shall  have  in  all  parts  an 
internal  diameter  of  not  less  than  two  inches,  and  shall  be  connected  with  the 
arm  of  the  soil  pipe  at  a  point  not  less  than  three  and  not  more  than  twelve 
inches  from  the  highest  part  of  the  trap  and  on  that  side  of  the  water  seal 
which  is  nearest  to  the  soil  pipe. 

4.  Any  person  who  shall  provide  a  soil  pipe  in  connection  with  a  building 
to  be  hereafter  erected,  shall  cause  such  soil  pipe  to  be  situated  outside  such 
building,  and  any  person  who  shall  provide  or  construct  or  refit  a  soil  pipe  in 
connection  with  an  existing  building,  shall,  whenever  practicable,  cause  such 
soil  pipe  to  be  situated  outside  such  building,  and  in  all  cases  where  such  soil 
pipe  shall  be  situated  within  any  building,  shall  construct  such  soil  pipe  in 
drawn  lead,  or  of  heavy  cast  iron  jointed  with  molten  lead  and  properly  caulked. 

He  shall  construct  such  soil  pipe  so  that  its  weight  in  proportion  to  its  length 
and  internal  diameter,  shall  be  as  follows — 


Diameter. 

Weight 

N 

Lead. 
per  10  feet  length, 
ot  less  than 

Weight 

N 

Iron. 

per  6  feet  length, 
ot  less  than 

y/2  inches 

65  lbs. 

48  lbs. 

4 

74    " 

54    " 

5 

92     " 

69    " 

6 

no     " 

84  " 

Every  person  who  shall  provide  a  soil  pipe  outside  or  inside  a  building  shall 
cause  such  soil  pipe  to  have  an  internal  diameter  of  not  less  than  three  and  a 
half  inches,  and  to  be  continued  upwards  without  diminution  of  its  diameter, 
and  (except  where  unavoidable)  without  any  bend  or  angle  being  formed  in 
such  soil  pipe,  to  such  a  height  and  in  such  a  position  as  to  afford  by  means 
of  the  open  end  of  such  soil  pipe  a  safe  .outlet  for  foul  air,  and  so  that  such  open 
end  shall  in  all  cases  be  above  the  highest  part  of  the  roof  of  the  building  to 
which  the  soil  pipe  is  attached,  and  where  practicable,  be  not  less  than  three 
feet  above  any  window  within  twenty  feet  measured  in  a  straight  line  from  the 
open  end  of  such  soil  pipe. 

He  shall  furnish  the  open  end  of  such  soil  pipe  with  a  wire  guard  covering, 
the  opening  in  the  meshes  of  which  shall  be  equal  to  not  less  than  the  area  of 
the  open  end  of  the  soil  pipe. 

In  all  such  cases  where  he  shall  connect  a  lead  trap  or  pipe  with  an  iron  soil 
pipe  or  drain,  he  shall  insert  between  such  trap  or  pipe  and  such  soil  pipe  or 
drain  a  brass  thimble,  and  he  shall  connect  such  lead  trap  or  pipe  with  such 
thimble  by  means  of  a  wiped  or  overcast  lead  joint,  and  he  shall  connect  such 


LOWLES.  183 

thimble  with  the  iron  soil  pipe  or  drain  by  means  of  a  joint  made  with  molten 
lead,  properly  caulked. 

In  all  such  cases  where  he  shall  connect  a  stoneware  trap  or  pipe  with  a  lead 
soil  pipe,  he  shall  insert  between  such  stoneware  trap  or  pipe,  and  such  soil 
pipe  or  drain,  a  brass  socket  or  other  similar  appliance,  and  he  shall  connect 
such  stoneware  trap  or  pipe  by  inserting  it  into  such  socket,  making  the  joint 
with  Portland  cement,  and  he  shall  connect  such  socket  with  the  lead  soil 
pipe,  by  means  of  a  wiped  or  overcast  lead  joint. 

In  all  cases  where  he  shall  connect  a  stoneware  trap  or  pipe  with  an  iron  soil 
pipe  or  drain,  he  shall  insert  such  stoneware  trap  or  pipe  into  a  socket  on 
such  iron  soil  pipe  or  drain,  making  the  joint  with  Portland  cement. 

He  shall  so  construct  such  soil  pipe  that  it  shall  not  be  directly  connected 
with  the  waste  of  any  bath,  rainwater  pipe,  or  of  any  sink  other  than  that 
which  is  provided  for  the  reception  of  urine  or  other  excremental  filth,  and  he 
shall  construct  such  soil  pipe  so  that  there  shall  not  be  any  trap  in  such  soil 
pipe  or  between  the  soil  pipe  and  any  drain  with  which  it  is  connected. 

5.  A  person  who  shall  newly  fit  or  fix  any  apparatus  in  connection  with 
any  existing  watercloset,  shall,  as  regards  such  apparatus'  and  its  connection 
with  existing  soil  pipe  or  drain,  comply  with  such  of  the  requirements  of  the 
foregoing  by-laws  as  would  be  applicable  to  the  apparatus  so  fitted  or  fixed  if 
the  watercloset  were  being  newly  constructed. 

6.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  an  earthcloset  in  connection  with  a 
building  shall  furnish  such  earthcloset  with  a  reservoir  or  receptacle,  of 
suitable  construction  and  of  adequate  capacity,  for  dry  earth,  and  he  shall 
construct  and  fix  such  reservoir  or  receptacle  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a 
position  as  to  admit  of  ready  access  to  such  reservoir  or  receptacle  for  the 
purpose  of  depositing  therein  the  necessary  supply  of  dry  earth. 

He  shall  construct  or  fix  in  connection  with  such  reservoir  or  receptacle 
suitable  means  or  apparatus  for  the  frequent  and  effectual  application  of  a 
sufficient  quantity  of  dry  earth  to  any  filth  which  may  from  time  to  time  be 
deposited  in  any  receptacle  for  filth  constructed,  fitted,  or  used,  in  or  in 
connection  with  such  earthcloset. 

He  shall  construct  such  earthcloset  so  that  the  contents  of  such  reservoir  or 
receptacle  may  not  at  any  time  be  exposed  to  any  rainfall  or  to  the  drainage  of 
any  waste  water  or  liquid  refuse  from  any  premises. 

7.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  an  earthcloset  in  connection  with  a 
building  shall  construct  such  earthcloset  for  use  in  combination  with  a  movable 
receptacle  for  filth. 

He  shall  construct  such  earthcloset  so  as  to  admit  of  a  movable  receptacle 
for  filth,  of  a  capacity  not  exceeding  two  cubic  feet,  being  placed  and  fitted 
beneath  the  seat  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position  as  may  effectually 
prevent  the  deposit  upon  the  floor  or  sides  of  the  space  beneath  such  seat,  or 
elsewhere  than  in  such  receptacle,  of  any  filth  which  may  from  time  to  time 
fall  or  be  cast  through  the  aperture  in  such  seat. 

He  shall  construct  such  receptable  for  filth  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a 
position  as  to  admit  of  the  frequent  and  effectual  application  of  a  sufficient 


1 84  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

quantity  of  dry  earth  to  any  filth  which  may  be  from  time  to  time  deposited  in 
such  receptacle  for  filth,  and  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position  as  to 
admit  of  ready  access  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the  contents  thereof. 

He  shall  also  construct  such  earthcioset  so  that  the  contents  of  such 
receptacle  for  filth  may  not  at  any  time  be  exposed  to  any  rainfall  or  to  the 
drainage  of  any  waste  water  or  liquid  refuse  from  any  premises. 

8.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  privy  in  connection  with  a  building 
shall  construct  such  privy  at  a  distance  of  twenty  feet  at  the  least  from  a 
dwelling-house,  or  public  building,  or  any  building  in  which  any  person  may 
be  or  may  be  intended  to  be  employed  in  any  manufacture,  trade,  or  business. 

9.  A  person  who  shall  construct  a  privy  in  connection  with  a  building  shall 
not  construct  such  privy  within  the  distance  of  one  hundred  feet  from  any 
well,  spring,  or  stream  of  water  used,  or  likely  to  be  used,  by  man  for  drinking 
or  domestic  purposes,  or  for  manufacturing  drinks  for  the  use  of  man,  or 
otherwise  in  such  a  position  as  to  render  any  such  water  liable  to  pollution. 

10.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  privy  in  connection  with  a  building 
shall  construct  such  privy  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position  as  to  afford 
ready  means  of  access  to  such  privy,  for  the  purpose  of  cleansing  such  privy 
and  of  removing  filth  therefrom,  and  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position 
as  to  admit  of  all  filth  being  removed  from  such  privy,  and  from  the  premises, 
to  which  such  privy  may  belong,  without  being  carried  through  any  dwelling- 
house,  or  public  building,  or  any  building  in  which  any  person  may  be  or  may 
be  intended  to  be  employed  in  any  manufacture,  trade  or  business. 

11.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  privy  in  connection  with  a  building, 
shall  provide  such  privy  with  a  sufficient  opening  for  ventilation  as  near  to  the 
top  as  practicable  and  communicating  directly  with  the  external  air. 

He  shall  cause  the  floor  of  such  privy  to  be  flagged  or  paved  with  hard  tiles 
or  other  non-absorbent  material,  and  he  shall  construct  such  floor  so  that  it 
shall  be  in  every  part  thereof  at  a  height  of  not  less  than  six  inches  above  the 
level  of  the  surface  of  the  ground  adjoining  such  privy,  and  so  that  such  floor 
shall  have  a  fall  or  inclination  .towards  the  door  of  such  privy  of  half  an  inch 
to  the  foot. 

12.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  privy  in  connection  with  a  building 
shall  construct  such  privy  for  use  in  combination  with  a  movable  receptacle  for 
filth,  and  shall  construct  over  the  whole  area  of  the  space  immediately  beneath 
the  seat  of  such  privy  a  floor  of  flagging  or  asphalt  or  some  suitable  composite 
material,  at  a  height  of  not  less  than  three  inches  above  the  level  of  the  surface 
of  the  ground  adjoining  such  privy  ;  and  he  shall  cause  the  whole  extent  of 
each  side  of  such  space  between  the  floor  and  the  seat,  other  than  any  part 
that  may  be  occupied  by  any  door  or  other  opening  therein,  to  be  constructed 
of  flagging,  slate,  or  good  brickwork,  at  least  nine  inches  thick,  and  rendered 
in  good  cement  or  asphalted. 

He  shall  construct  the  seat  of  such  privy,  the  aperture  in  such  seat,  and  the 
space  beneath  such  seat,  of  such  dimensions  as  to  admit  of  a  movable  recep- 
tacle for  filth  of  a  capacity  not  exceeding  two  cubic  feet  being  placed  and  fitted 
beneath  such  seat  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position  as  may  effectually 


LOWLES.  185 

prevent  the  deposit,  upon  the  floor  or  sides  of  the  space  beneath  such  seat  or 
elsewhere  than  in  such  receptacle,  of  any  filth  which  may  from  time  to  time 
fall  or  be  cast  through  the  aperture  in  such  seat. 

He  shall  construct  such  privy  so  that  for  the  purpose  of  cleansing  the  space 
beneath  the  seat,  or  of  removing  therefrom  or  placing  or  fitting  therein  an 
appropriate  receptacle  for  filth,  there  shall  be  a  door  or  other  opening  in  the 
back  or  one  of  the  sides  thereof  capable  of  being  opened  from  the  outside  of 
the  privy,  or  in  any  case  where  such  a  mode  of  construction  may  be  impracti- 
cable, so  that  for  the  purposes  aforesaid  the  whole  of  the  seat  of  the  privy  or  a 
sufficient  part  thereof  may  be  readily  moved  or  adjusted. 

13.  A  person  who  shall  construct  a  privy  in  connection  with  a  building  shall 
not  cause  or  suffer  any  part  of  the  space  under  the  seat  of  such  privy,  or  any 
part  of  any  receptacle  for  filth  in  or  in  connection  with  such  privy,  to  commu- 
nicate with  any  drain. 

14.  Every  person  who  shall  intend  to  construct  any  watercloset,  earthcloset, 
or  privy,  or  to  fit  or  fix  in  any  watercloset,  earthcloset,  or  privy  any  apparatus 
or  any  trap  or  soil  pipe  connected  therewith,  shall,  before  executing  any  such 
works,  give  notice  in  writing  to  the  clerk  of  the  Sanitary  Authority. 

15.  Every  owner  of  an  earthcloset  or  privy  existing  at  the  date  of  the 
confirmation  of  these  by-laws  shall,  before  the  expiration  of  six  months  from 
and  aftersuch  date  of  confirmation,  cause  the  same  to  be  reconstructed  in  such 
manner  that  its  position,  structure  and  apparatus  shall  comply  with  such  of 
the  requirements  of  the  foregoing  by-laws  as  are  applicable  to  earthcl'osets  or 
privies  newly  constructed. 

16.  When  any  person  shall  provide  an  ashpit  in  connection  with  a  building, 
he  shall  cause  the  same  to  consist  of  one  or  more  movable  receptacies  sufficient 
to  contain  the  house  refuse  which  may  accumulate  during  any  period  not 
exceeding  one  week.  Each  of  such  receptacles  shall  be  constructed  of  metal 
and  shall  be  provided  with  one  or  more  suitable  handles  and  cover.  The 
capacity  of  each  of  such  receptacles  shall  not  exceed  two  cubic  feet. 

Provided  that  the  requirement  as  to  the  size  of  each  of  such  receptacles 
shall  not  apply  to  any  person  who  shall  construct  such  receptacle  or  recep- 
tacles in  connection  with  any  premises  to  which  there  is  attached  as  part  of 
the  conditions  of  tenancy  the  right  to  dispose  of  house  refuse  in  an  ashpit 
used  in  common  by  the  occupiers  of  several  tenancies,  but  in  no  case  shall 
such  ashpit  be  of  greater  capacity  than  is  required  to  enable  it  to  contain  the 
refuse  which  may  accumulate  during  any  period  not  exceeding  one  week. 

17.  The  occupier  of  any  premises  who  shall  use  any  ashpit  shall,  if  sucii 
ashpit  consist  of  a  movable  receptacle,  cause  such  receptacle  to  be  kept  in  a 
covered  place,  or  to  be  properly  covered,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  exposed  to 
rainfall,  and  if  such  ashpit  consist  of  a  fixed  receptacle,  he  shall  cause  the  same 
to  be  kept  properly  covered. 

18.  Where  the  Sanitary  Authority  have  arranged  for  the  daily  removal  of 
house  refuse  in  their  district,  or  in  any  part  thereof,  the  owner  of  any  premises 
in  such  district  or  part  thereof  shall  provide  an  ashpit  which  shall  consist  of 
one  or  more  movable  receptacles,  sufficient  to  contain  the  house  refuse  which 


1 86  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

may  accumulate  during  any  period  not  exceeding  three  days,  which  the 
Sanitary  Authority  may  determine,  and  of  which  the  Sanitary  Authority  shall 
give  notice  by  public  announcement  in  their  district.  Each  of  such  receptacles 
shall  be  constructed  of  metal,  and  provided  with  one  or  more  suitable  handles 
and  cover.  The  capacity  of  each  of  such  receptacles  shall  not  exceed  two 
cubic  feet. 

Provided  always  that  this  by-law  shall  not  apply  to  the  owner  of  any 
premises  until  the  expiration  of  three  months  after  the  Sanitary  Authority 
have  publicly  notified  their  intention  to  adopt  a  system  of  daily  collection  of 
house  refuse  in  that  part  of  their  district  which  comprises  such  premises. 

19.  Where  any  receptacle  shall  have  been  provided  as  an  ashpit  for  any 
premises  in  pursuance  of  any  by-law  in  that  behalf,  no  person  shall  deposit  the 
house  refuse  which  may  accumulate  on  such  premises  in  any  ashpit  that  does 
not  comply  with  the  requirements  of  these  by-laws. 

20.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  cesspool  in  connection  with  a  build- 
ing, shall  construct  such  cesspool  at  a  distance  of  one  hundred  feet  at  the  least 
from  a  dwelling-house,  or  public  building,  or  any  building  in  which  any  person 
may  be,  or  may  be  intended  to  be,  employed  in  any  manufacture,  trade,  or 
business. 

21.  A  person  who  shall  construct  a  cesspool  in  connection  with  a  building, 
shall  not  construct  such  cesspool  within  the  distance  of  one  hundred  feet  from 
any  well,  spring,  or  stream  of  water. 

22.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  cesspool  in  connection  with  a  building, 
shall  construct  such  cesspool  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position  as  to 
afford  ready  means  of  access  to  such  cesspool,  for  the  purpose  of  cleansing 
such  cesspool,  and  of  removing  the  contents  thereof,  and  in  such  a  manner  and 
in  such  a  position  as  to  admit  of  the  contents  of  such  cesspool  being  removed 
therefrom,  and  from  the  premises  to  which  such  cesspool  may  belong,  without 
being  carried  through  any  dwelling-house,  or  public  building,  or  any  building 
in  which  any  person  may  be,  or  may  be  intended  to  be,  employed  in  any 
manufacture,  trade,  or  business. 

He  shall  not  in  any  case  construct  such  cesspool  so  that  it  shall  have,  by 
drain  or  otherwise,  any  means  of  communication  with  any  sewer  or  any 
overflow  outlet. 

23.  Every  person  who  shall  construct  a  cesspool  in  connection  with  a 
building,  shall  construct  such  cesspool  of  good  brickwork  bedded  and  grouted 
in  cement,  properly  rendered  inside  with  cement,  and  with  a  backing  of  at 
least  nine  inches  of  well-puddled  clay  around  and  beneath  such  brickwork, 
and  so  that  such  cesspool  shall  be  perfectly  watertight. 

He  shall  also  cause  such  cesspool  to  be  arched  or. otherwise  properly 
covered  over,  and  to  be  provided  with  adequate  means  of  ventilation. 

24.  A  person  shall  not  use  as  a  receptacle  for  dung  any  receptacle  so 
constructed  or  placed  that  one  of  its  sides  shall  be  formed  by  the  wall  of  any 
room  used  for  human  habitation,  or  under  a  dwelling-house,  factory,  workshop, 
or  workplace,  and  he  shall  not  use  any  receptacle  in  such  a  situation  that  it 
would  be  likely  to  cause  a  nuisance  or  become  injurious  or  dangerous  to 
health. 


LOWLES.  1 87 

25.  Every  owner  of  any  existing  receptacle  for  dung  shall,  before  the 
expiration  of  six  months  from  the  date  of  the  confirmation  of  these  by-laws, 
and  every  person  who  shall  construct  a  receptacle  for  dung,  shall  cause  such 
receptacle  to  be  so  constructed  that  its  capacity  shall  not  be  greater  than  two 
cubic  yards,  and  so  that  the  bottom  or  floor  thereof  shall  not,  in  any  case,  be 
lower  than  the  surface  of  the  ground  adjoining  such  receptacle. 

He  shall  so  construct  such  receptacle  that  a  sufficient  part  of  one  of  its  sides 
shall  be  readily  removable  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  cleansing. 

He  shall  also  cause  such  receptacle  to  be  constructed  in  such  a  manner  and 
of  such  materials,  and  to  be  maintained  at  all  times  in  such  a  condition  as  to 
prevent  any  escape  of  the  contents  thereof,  or  any  soakage  therefrom  into  the 
ground  or  into  the  wail  of  any  building. 

He  shall  cause  such  receptacle  to  be  so  constructed  that  no  rain  or  water  can 
enter  therein,  and  so  that  it  shall  be  freely  ventilated  into  the  external  air. 

Provided  that  a  person  who  shall  construct  a  receptacle  for  dung,  the  whole 
of  the  contents  of  which  are  removed  not  less  frequently  than  every  forty-eight 
hours,  shall  not  be  required  to  construct  such  receptacle  so  that  its  capacity 
shall  not  be  greater  than  two  cubic  yards. 

And  provided  that  a  person  who  shall  construct  a  receptacle  for  dujig.  which 
shall  contain  only  dung  of  horses,  asses  or  mules  with  stable  litter,  and  the 
whole  of  the  contents  of  which  are  removed  not  less  frequently  than  every 
forty-eight  hours,  may,  instead  of  all  other  requirements  of  this  by-law, 
construct  a  metal  cage,  and  shall  beneath  such  metal  cage  adequately  pave 
the  ground  at  a  level  not  lower  than  the  surrounding  ground,  and  in  such  a 
manner  and  to  such  an  extent  as  will  prevent  any  soakage  into  the  ground  ; 
and  if  such  cage  be  placed  near  to  or  against  any  building  he  shall  adequately 
cement  the  wall  of  such  building  in  such  a  manner  and  to  such  an  extent  as 
will  prevent  any  soakage  from  the  dung  within  or  upon  such  receptacle  into 
the  wall  of  such  building. 

26.  The  occupier  of  any  premises  shall  cause  every  watercloset  belonging 
to  such  premises  to  be  thoroughly  cleansed  from  time  to  time  as  often  as  may 
be  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  such  watercloset  in  a  cleanly  condition. 

The  occupier  of  any  premises  shall  once  at  least  in  every  week  cause  every 
earthcloset,  privy,  and  receptacle  for  dung  belonging  to  such  premises  to  be 
emptied  and  thoroughly  cleansed. 

The  occupier  of  any  premises  shall  once  at  least  in  every  three  months  cause 
every  cesspool  belonging  to  such  premises  to  be  emptied  and  thoroughly 
cleansed. 

Provided  that  where  two  or  more  lodgers  in  a  lodging-house  are  entitled  to 
the  use  in  common  of  any  watercloset,  earthcloset,  privy,  cesspool,  or  receptacle 
for  dung.the  landlord  shall  cause  such  watercloset,  earthcloset,  privy,  cesspool, 
or  receptacle  for  dung  to  be  cleansed  and  emptied  as  aforesaid. 

The  landlord,  or  owner  of  any  lodging-house,  shall  provide  and  maintain  in 
connection  with  such  house,  watercloset,  earthcloset  or  privy  accommodation 
in  the  proportion  of  not  less  than  one  watercloset,  earthcloset,  or  privy,  for 
every  twelve  persons. 


l88  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  by-law,  "  a  lodging-house  "  means  a  house  or  part 
of  a  house  which  is  let  in  lodgings  or  occupied  by  members  of  more  than  one 
family.  "  Landlord"  in  relation  to  a  house  or  part  of  a  house  which  is  let  in 
lodgings,  or  occupied  by  members  of  more  than  one  family,  means  the  person 
(whatever  may  be  the  nature  or  extent  of  his  interest)  by  whom  or  on  whose 
behalf  such  house  or  part  of  a  house  is  let  in  lodgings  or  for  occupation  by 
members  of  more  than  one  family,  or  who  for  the  time  being  receives  or  is 
entitled  to  receive  the  profits  arising  from  such  letting.  "  Lodger  "  in  relation 
to  a  house  or  part  of  a  house  which  is  let  in  lodgings  or  occupied  by  members 
of  more  than  one  family,  means  a  person  to  whom  any  room  or  rooms  in  such 
house  or  part  of  a  house  may  have  been  let  as  a  lodging  or  for  his  u.'se  or 
occupation. 

Nothing  in  this  by-law  shall  extend  to  any  common  lodging-house. 

27  The  owner  of  any  premises  shall  maintain  in  proper  condition  of  repair 
every  watercloset,  earthcloset,  privy,  ashpit,  cesspool,  and  receptacle  for 
dung,  and  the  proper  accessories  thereof  belonging  to  such  premises. 

Penalties. 

28.  Every  person  who  shall  offend  against  any  of  the  foregoing  by-laws  shall 
be  liable  for  every  such  offense  to  a  penalty  of  Five  pounds,  and  in  the  case  of 
a  continuing  offense  to  a  further  penalty  of  Forty  shillings  for  each  day  after 
written  notice  of  the  offense  from  the  Sanitary  Authority.  Provided  never- 
theless that  the  court  before  whom  any  complaint  may  be  made  or  any 
proceedings  may  be  taken  in  respect  of  any  such  offense  may,  if  the  court 
think  fit,  adjudge  the  payment  as  a  penalty  of  any  sum  less  than  the  full 
amount  of  the  penalty  imposed  by  this  by-law. 


PRIVATE  UNOFFICIAL  VISITATION  OF  PUBLIC 

INSTITUTIONS. 

LOUISA   TWINING. 

I  have  been  asked  to  say  something  on  this  subject  from  an 
English  point  of  view,  and  I  have  much  pleasure  in  doing  so,  as  I 
have  long  been  interested  in  it,  advocating  its  adoption  and  extension 
in  this  country. 

It  is  many  years  since  I  read  of  the  plans  of  the  State  Charities 
Aid  Association,  and  they  at  once  commended  themselves  to  me. 
I  wrote  a  paper  about  them  in  the  London  Charity  Organization 
Review,  and  would  gladly  have  seen  them  more  widely  adopted 
here.       But   I   had  endeavored  to  make  a  move  in  this  direction 


TWINING.  189 

long  before  ;  for  as  far  back  as  the  year  1853  I  had  begun  to  visit 
our  workhouses,  or  as  they  would  rather  be  called  in  America, 
"  poorhouses,"  under  our  poor  law,  supported  by  rates  collected  from 
all  classes.     The  evils  of  close  management,  carried  out  only  by 
paid  officials,  at  once  struck  me  as  being  inevitable  under  such  a 
system,  in  which,  at  that  time,  all  control  and  inspection  by  women 
was  unknown  ;  the  paid  officers  being  almost  universally  of  a  low,  or, 
at  least,  middle-class  grade.   The  rate-payers  had  neither  knowledge 
nor  control  of  anything  beyond  the  election  of  their  so-called  rep- 
resentatives, in  which,  however,  little  or  no  interest  was  taken,  and 
the  proceedings  that  went  on  inside  the  "house"  were  carefully  con- 
cealed, visitors  of  any  kind,  except  the  friends  of  the  inmates,  being 
unknown.   So  strong  was  my  conviction  of  the  dangers  and  absolute 
evils  of  such  a  state  of  things,  that  even  after  my  first  visit  I  endeav- 
ored to  gain  admission  for  other  visitors  besides  myself.    This  was  of 
course  objected  to  by  those  whose  interest  it  was  to  keep  out  all 
inquiry  and  inspection  except,  what  was  demanded  by  law,  the  occa- 
sional visits  of  gentlemen  from  the  Central  Poor  Law  Board.    It  has 
always  been  a  matter  of  surprise  and  astonishment  to  me  that  these 
educated  and  intelligent  gentlemen  should  have  had  their  eyes  closed 
for  so  long  a  time  to  the  evils  of  the  system  ;  it  has  only  convinced 
me  of  the  truth,  which  has  been  growing  ever  since,  that  men  are  not 
intended  to  control  or  examine  domestic  matters  and  management, 
and  that,  as  the  late  Mrs.  Jameson  acutely  remarked  in  her  lectures     I 
delivered  in  1855,  the  "female  element"  being  entirely  wanting  (at 
least  of  an  educated  or  refined  description),  and  no  "  communion  of 
labors"  between  men  and  women  being  even  dimly  recognized,  it  is 
not  difficult  to  account  for  any  shortcomings  that  may  have  arisen  in 
the  system. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  relate  the  many  obstacles  that  were  to 
be  encountered  before  my  object  was  attained  ;  having  made  my  first  1 
efforts  to  get  the  daylight  of  public  opinion  admitted  into  abodes  ' 
that  were  as  inaccessible  to  outside  influence  as  the  strictest  of 
prisons,  obstacles  had  been  so  far  overcome  by  the  year  1858  that  a 
society  was  started  for  "  workhouse  visiting,"  supported  by  some 
of  the  best  men  and  women  of  the  time,  who  formed  our  active  com- 
mittee, while  a  much  larger  body  gave  it  their  sanction  and  support. 
A  journal  was  shortly  started,  which  quarterly  or  oftener  gave  inter- 
esting information  to  the  outside  world  concerning  every  department 
of  pauper  life,  the  schools,  infirmaries,  the  aged  and  the  able-bodied. 


igO  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

This  was  carried  on  for  some  years,  till  its  object  seemed  to  be 
attained,  and  the  visitors  had  been  admitted  into  many  poor  law 
institutions.  The  revelations  they  brought  to  light,  especially  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  sick,  led  to  many  more  investigations;  and  the 
attention  of  medical  men  being  aroused,  a  commission  was  set  on 
foot  by  the  Lancet  for  an  examination  of  some  of  the  institutions 
where  gross  neglect  and  abuses  had  been  known  to  take  place.  In 
this  brief  sketch  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  all  these  private  efforts, 
beginning  with  those  made  by  visitors  who  naturally  spoke  of  what 
they  saw,  led  to  the  important  legislation  which  was  passed  in  1867 
for  the  separation  of  the  sick  from  all  other  classes  of  inmates,  espe- 
cially in  the  metropolitan  district,  in  which  there  are  twenty-four 
different  centres  or  unions,  each  with  a  new  infirmary,  the  largest  of 
which  contains  over  700  patients. 

My  object  is  not  to  describe  workhouse  infirmaries,  but  only  the 
progress  of  voluntary  effort,  which  has  effected  so  many  reforms  in 
all  departments  of  social  work.  The  schools  for  pauper  children  are 
now  open  to  different  bodies  of  voluntary  workers,  such  as  the 
Metropolitan  Association  for  Befriending  Young  Servants,  and  the 
workhouse  branch  of  the  Girls'  Friendly  Society.  The  infirmaries 
have  been  largely  improved  and  influenced  by  the  Association  for 
Promoting  Trained  Nursing  in  them,  and  the  committee  are  now 
applied  to  from  all  parts  of  England  for  nurses  whom  they  have 
either  trained  or  can  recommend. 

Homes  of  various  kinds  are  begun  by  private  persons  for  various 
classes  of  inmates,  especially  for  the  industrial  training  of  children, 
and  certified  by  the  Central  Board,  so  that  payments  can  be  made 
by  guardians  for  their  maintenance.  Through  an  act  of  Parliament 
passed  in  1863,  supplemented  by  private  charity,*  "feeble-minded" 
children  are  now  being  thus  treated,  with  every  hope  of  success ;  and 
this  is  chiefly  owing  to  the  representations  of  those  who  have  studied 
their  condition  in  the  schools.  Committees  of  ladies,  called  "  Work- 
house Girls'  Aid  Committees,"  are  authorized  to  work  amongst  the 
fallen  girls,  and  endeavor  to  help  those  who  are  capable  of  being 

*The  now  well  known  plans  of  the  Association  for  Boarding-out  Orphan  and 
Deserted  Children  in  Families  should  also  be  named,  as  having  been  begun 
in  1870,  by  some  ladies  in  Westmoreland,  and  sanctioned  by  the  last  Govern- 
ment Board,  and  which  now  numbers  thousands  of  children  under  the  care  of 
such  committees,  who  are  thus  removed  from  the  atmosphere  and  surroundings 
of  pauperism. 


WHITE.  191 

raised  from  their  degradation.  The  beneficent  aims  of  the  "  Bra- 
bazon  Scheme  "  are  too  well  known  in  America  for  me  to  describe 
them ;  but  the  boon  that  they  bestow  on  the  apparently  helpless 
and  hopeless  objects  in  the  sick  and  infirm  wards  can  be  appreciated 
only  by  those  who  have  witnessed  them.  Temperance  work  is 
carried  on  by  outside  bodies  in  many  poor  law  institutions  for  young 
and  old.  Then,  as  the  last  proof  of  the  progress  of  this  movement 
of  voluntary  action  co-operating  with  official  work,  I  name  with  great 
satisfaction  the  order  that  was  issued  in  January  of  this  year  by  the 
Local  Government  Board,  authorizing  the  appointment  of  "ladies' 
committees,  who  need  not  be  guardians,  with  authority,  subject  to 
rules  framed  by  the  guardians,  to  visit  the  parts  of  the  workhouse  in 
which  female  paupers  or  pauper  children  are  accommodated,  with 
the  view  of  their  reporting  to  the  guardians  any  matter  which  appears 
to  them  to  need  attention." 

This  is  in  fact  carrying  out  the  suggestions  of  the  Workhouse 
Visiting  Society  thirty-five  years  ago,  with  the  additional  powers 
of  authority  to  report  upon  what  they  see  and  inspect. 

I  can  hardly  leave  this  subject  without  reminding  my  readers  of 
the  most  remarkable  instance  of  voluntary  work  resulting  in  bene- 
ficent reforms  by  the  self-imposed  labors  of  Elizabeth  Fry  and 
Howard  in  the  last  century,  and  later,  by  Sarah  Martin,  when  the 
condition  of  prisons  and  prisoners  was  too  terrible  to  be  described. 
All  improvements  that  have  since  taken  place  may  date  from  those 
efforts  of  self-denying  humanity. 

Visitors  are  now  permitted  and  appointed  for  all  prisons. 

Outside  inspection  has  not  yet  been  provided  for  hospitals,  but  it 
is  earnestly  desired  that  ladies  should  at  least  be  allowed  to  act  on 
the  various  committees  of  management.  Visitors  to  the  sick  are 
allowed  to  cheer  them  by  reading  or  conversation,  but  for  no  other 
purpose. 


IMMIGRATION  OF  ALIENS. 

ARNOLD   WHITE,  LONDON. 


I  owe  an  apology  to  every  American  citizen  who  may  do  me  the 
honor  to  read  this  paper.  That  an  apology  is  due  will  appear  from 
the  two  postulates  underlying  the  whole  argument  that  follows,  /.  e. 


192  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

that  men  are  born  neither  (i)  free  nor  (2)  equal.  There  is  of  course 
a  diplomatic  and  even  a  theological  sense  in  which  men  are  both 
equal  and  free;  but  if  casuistry  be  laid  aside,  and  the  vernacular  of 
plain  business  alone  employed,  the  equality  and  freedom  of  mankind 
are  restricted  to  iron-clad  limits  of  narrow  compass.  The  yellow 
man  propelled  from  the  valley  of  the  Yangtse-Kiang^  by  the  expul- 
sive force  of  over-population  and  of  want;  or  the  poor  Jew  of  Mos- 
cow or  of  Kiev  who  is  "  moved  on  "  by  the  piety  and  police  of 
Pobiedonostzev  or  the  anger  of  Alexander,  is  in  each  case  free  to  lie 
down  and  die,  and  they  are  equal  in  "  natural  rights,"  whatever  they 
may  happen  to  be.  The  fact  is  that,  as  regard  individuals  as  well  as 
regards  nations,  in  respect  to  freedom  and  equality  there  has  been  a 
vast  quantity  of  gaseous  cant  floating  about  this  planet  ever  since  the 
bovine  stipulations  of  George  the  Third  and  his  advisers  broke  up 
the  effective  and  permanent  union  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race;  and 
more  especially  since  the  peasants  of  France,  not  without  bloodshed, 
successfully  asserted  their  right  not  to  sit  up  o'  nights  flogging  the 
ponds,  so  that  the  seignezirie  at  the  chateau  might  slumber  in  peace 
undisturbed  by  the  croaking  of  frogs. 

Both  the  States  and  Great  Britain  are  just  at  present  puzzled  by 
the  immigration  riddle.  They  are  affected  by  much  the  same  causes, 
if  in  a  different  form.  Russian  persecutions  have  directed,  both  to 
American  and  British  shores,  an  army  of  excellent  people,  whose 
chief  qualification  for  citizenship  is  want,  and  whose  hereditary  ignor- 
ance of,  and  muscular  incapacity  for,,  the  more  elementary  conditions 
of  success  in  a  new  country  are  better  calculated  to  stir  the  benevo- 
lence of  philanthropists  than  the  admiration  of  statesmen.  Nor  is  the 
reason  far  to  seek.  The  duty  of  statesmen  is  not  fulfilled  when  they 
have  given  attention  to  the  current  problems  of  political  necessity. 
They  are,  in  addition,  trustees  for  posterity.  From  this  task  they 
may  shrink;  they  may  evade  it;  but  the  duty  remains.  To  regard 
the  welfare  and  destiny  of  unborn  millions  may  raise  no  applaus^, 
make  no  reputations,  and  excite  no  emotions  of  gratitude;  but  the 
interests  of  that  silent  multitude  that  mutely  waits  round  the  corner 
of  the  century  to  receive  what  we  relinquish  are  interests  that  cannot 
be  ignored  by  an  honest  statesman,  and  will  be  safeguarded  by  a 
great  one. 

Much  dispute  is  raised  in  these  days  of  Irish  controversy  as  to 
what  it  is  that  constitutes  a  nationality.  Without  atiempting  a  com- 
plete answer,  it  may  be  admitted  that  oneness  of  race  is  at  all  events 


WHITE. 


193 


an  elementary  condition  in  a  full-grown  nation.  Nothing  strikes  a 
stranger  more  in  the  United  States  than  the  fact  that  the  G<  rman 
of  Cincinnati,  the  Swede  of  Milwaukee  or  the  Irishman  of  New  York 
is  in  each  case  more  intensely  Teutonic,  Scandinavian  and  Hibernian 
than  in  their  respective  fatherlands.  In  point  of  fact,  race  is  in  pro- 
cess of  making  in  North  America  ;  you  have  not  yet  struck  a  type. 
It  is  true  that  to  most  European  minds  the  typical  American  is  suc- 
cessfully produced  by  the  Atlantic  States.  California,  Virginia  and 
Ohio  demur  to  this  assumption.  In  point  of  fact,  the  American  type 
is  forming;  it  is  not  yet  formed,  and  may  well  take  a  few  centuries 
to  evoke  a  type  that  will  be  recognized  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
States  themselves  as  racially  and  distinctively  American. 

If  my  proposition  be  true,  that  the  American  nation,  however  com- 
pletely equipped  for  all  practical  purposes  in  its  struggle  for  existence 
in  the  world  of  to-day,  is  not  yet  racially  blended,  perfected,  com- 
plete, or  developed,  then  the  duty  of  your  rulers  to  exclude  all  that 
may  tend  to  deteriorate  your  type  becomes  a  duty  of  the  most  im- 
pressive nature — that  is,  if  men  are  not  born  equal,  a  proposition 
with  which  I  set  out.  The  difference  between  a  philanthropist  and  a 
statesman  is  the  difference  between  one  who  looks  to  all  the  results 
following  the  movement  of  a  given  piece  of  machinery,  and  one  who 
looks  only  to  the  specific  phenomenon  which  has  touched  the  striated 
muscle  he  is  pleased  to  call  his  heart.  The  philanthropist  is  known 
to  exhibit  imperial  indifference  towards  the  direst  sufferings  when 
they  are  the  result  of  the  noble  emotions.  It  is  enough  for  him  that 
the  evil  he  has  set  himseff  to  redress  really  is  destroyed.  The  gen- 
eration of  a  cloud  of  other  and  greater  evils  is  a  matter  of  indifference. 
The  bear  who  watched  his  sleeping  man-friend  being  disturbed  with 
buzzing  flies,  and  thereupon  sympathetically  destroyed  the  flies  and 
killed  the  man  with  one  and  the  same  blow,  it  always  struck  me,  must 
have  been  an  Anglo-Saxon  philanthropic  bear. 

In  point  of  fact,  in  statesmanship  there  is  never  a  clear  road. 
Every  conceivable  course  is  open  to  objections.  The  wisest  and  the 
greatest  statesman  is  he  who,  having  resolved  on  his  goal,  takes  the 
line  open  to  the  fewest  objections.  Apply  this  principle  to  the 
maintenance  and  improvement  of  the  respective  types  of  American 
and  British  nationalities,  by  what  considerations  will  Washington 
and  London  be  governed  in  dealing  with  the  question  of  the  immi- 
gration of  aliens,  and  more  especially  of  destitute  aliens — aliens 
destitute   not   merely  of  money  and   of  muscle,  but  of  character, 


194  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

purpose,  knowledge,  and  everything  that  separates  a  man  from  the 
unclean  beasts  of  Gadara. 

In  the  solution  of  this  problem,  the  government  of  the  States  enjoys 
a  marked  advantage  over  that  of  Great  Britain.  The  port  of  New 
York  is  the  gate  through  which,  for  practical  purposes,  every  sea- 
borne immigrant  must  pass  before  he  can  enter  the  land  where  all 
poor  men  want  to  go  at  some  time  or  other  during  their  lives.  The 
facility  with  which  regulations  can  be  framed  is  not  much  less  than 
the  ease  with  which  they  can  be  enforced.*  A  given  physical,  men- 
tal, or  propertied  standard,  once  prescribed,  can  be  effectively  main- 
tained under  the  shadow  of  the  statue  of  Liberty.  It  is  otherwise  in 
England.  We  have  many  ports.  The  distances  from  other  lands 
are  measured  Ijy  hours  and  not  by  days.  The  steamship  companies, 
which  are  under  effective  control  by  the  United  States,  elude  the 
administrative  capacity  of  any  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade  yet 
born  in  England.  The  first  consideration,  therefore,  is  that  of  the 
executive  powers  with  which  the  immigration  authorities  are  to  be 
endowed.  As  in  so  many  other  cases  of  new  developments,  the 
United  vStates  is  acting,  while  Great  Britain  is  weighing  the  objec- 
tions to  every  conceivable  course  and  pronouncing,  with  all  the 
weight  of  inspiration,  against  the  adoption  of  any  of  them.  The 
result  is  that  not  only  do  we  receive  the  scum  of  Europe,  but  we  get 
the  back-wash  of  the  American  scum,  besides  the  good  folk  who, 
from  mental  and  physical  disabilities,  do  not  attempt  to  ring  the  bell 
at  Ellis  Island  in  New  York  harbor. 

Next  to  the  executive  difficulties  in  the  way  of  restriction  and  dis- 
crimination, the  main  consideration  is  the  democratic  lines  on  which 
restriction  is  now  advocated  both  in  the  States  and  in  England. 
The  persons  who  deprecate  interference  with  the  free  inflow  of  the 
destitute  alien  are  either  pure  sentimentalists  or  capitalists  who  have 
everything  to  gain  by  the  fiercest  competition  between  wage-earners. 
Because  England  once  received  the  skilled  and  useful  Huguenots 
after  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  when  the  population  of 
these  islands  was  under  eight  millions,  therefore  she  should  now 
receive,  they  argue,  the  destitute  population  of  Eastern  Europe, 
when  her  population  is  thirty-nine  millions,  and  the  struggle  for  life 
so  fierce  as  to  crush  out  the  dignity  of  manhood,  the  grace  of  woman- 
hood and  the  merriment  of   children.     These  wiseacres,  who  can 

*  I  do  not  speak  of  the  misuse  of  the  Canadian  back-door,  which  constitutes 
a  real  American  nuisance,  to  be  removed  by  diplomacy. 


WHITE.  195 

afford  to  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  traditions  for  which  they  do  not 
pay,  but  from  which  they  profit  in  the  form  of  wicked  cheapness, 
have  no  eyes  to  see  that  for  all  nations  there  are  other  and  nobler 
traditions,  which  bear  upon  the  nearer  duties  of  regard  to  brothers  in 
blood,  color,  race,  before  exercising  vicarious  hospitality  to  strangers 
without  racial  claim  to  generosity  at  the  expense  of  justice  to  their 
own  people.  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  has  fallen  into  this  error.  We 
are,  he  says,  a  colonizing  nation.  We  dispatch  to  other  countries 
many  more  than  we  receive  from  them.  This  is  true  enough,  but 
the  quality  of  the  human  material  received^ must  be  compared  with 
that  sent.  The  latest  witness  on  this  subject  is  Mr.  N.  S.  Joseph, 
whose  labors  as  Honorary  Secretary  to  the  Russo-Jewish  Committee 
reflect  lustre  not  only  on  the  community  of  which  he  is  one  of  the 
most  gifted  sons,  but  also  on  the  country  that  is  so  fortunate  as  to 
reckon  him  among  her  citizens.  Mr.  Joseph  delivered  an  address 
on  January  26th,  at  the  inaugural  meeting  of  the  visiting  and  bureau 
departments  of  the  London  Russo-Jewish  Committee. 

After  saying  that  there  remain  in  London  at  present  an  enormous 
number  of  Russian  immigrants  constantly  demanding  sympathy  and 
assistance,  he  continues  as  follows  : 

"  I  purposely  abstain  from  giving  any  estimate  of  that  number,  but  it 
suffices  to  say  that  the  lowest  estimate  is  alarming  enough  to  us  as  a  com- 
munity   The  first  difficulty  arises  from  the  heterogeneous  nature  of 

the  refugees.  There  are  some  thoroughly  capable  and  industrious,  who  only 
need  a  friendly  directing  hand  to  guide  them  to  the  means  of  earning  a  liveli- 
hood ;  others  wholly  incapable  and  idle,  and  who,  perhaps,  rarely  did  a  day's 
work  in  their  own  country.  There  are  some  fine,  sturdy  specimens  of  humanity, 
physically  and  morally  fit  subjects  for  emigration;  others,  perhaps  fully  as 
deserving  of  a  fresh  start  in  a  new  country,  but  so  attenuated  and  weakened 
by  privation  and  suffering  as  to  be  physically  unfit  for  emigration.  There  are, 
unfortunately,  a  large  number  of  poor  widows  and  orphans,  and  to  our  disgrace 
it  must  be  added,  there  are  many  deserted  wives  and  children.  There  are 
many  men  who  occupied  high  social,  professional  or  commercial  positions  in 
their  own  country,  and  who  have  arrived  here  wholly  without  means,  and  there 
are  thousands  of  immigrants  who  cannot  be  called  refugees  at  all,  but  who, 
chronic  incurable  paupers,  have  come  from  Russia  or  Poland  in  the  hope  of 
getting  something  from  the  Kusso-Jewish  Fund,  of  which  they  have  heard 
exaggerated  accounts.  Then  there  are  many  who,  in  Russia,  belonged  to 
trades  which  have  practically  no  existence  here,  and  a  still  larger  number  who 
were  only  hawkers  and  petty  dealers.  Then  there  are  the  sick  and  aged,  who 
might  or  might  not  have  been  driven  out  of  their  native  place.  Moreover, 
there  are,  as  might  be  expected,  the  differences  arising  from  variations  in 
mental  and  moral  constitution  and  development — the  cultured  and  the  semi- 


• 


196  PUBLIC    TREATMENT*  OF    PAUPERISM. 

barbarous,  the  truthful   and  the  untruthful,  the   honest  and  the   dishonest,  the 
intelligent  and  the  unreceptive." 

It  may  fairly  be  claimed — both  by  workinor  men  and  women  who 
are  subjected  to  the  searching  fire  of  furious  competition,  and  the 
rate-payers  who  are  responsible  for  maintaining  invalided  and  super- 
annuated workers,  disabled  in  the  struggle  for  life — that  immigrants 
of  the  class  described  by  Mr.  Joseph  may  be  rigorously  excluded 
from  our  shores.  If  they  are  not  wanted  in  the  States,  with  your 
millions  of  fertile  but  still  neglected  acres,  they  are  still  less  wanted 
here,  with  our  myriads  of  unproductive  but  naked  and  hungry  babies. 

The  political  refugee  argument  will  not  bear  examination.  The 
Mazzinis,  Volkokies,  Somersets,  Krapotkines,  and  Garibaldis  have 
always  paid  their  hotel  bills,  or  found  friends  to  discharge  their  obliga- 
tions for  them ,  and  will  always  succeed  in  obtaining  sympathy  and  cash 
from  lovers  of  freedom.  To  speak  plainly,  after  an  experience  of  nine 
months  in  Russia  during  the  height  of  thejewish  persecutions,  the  true 
expulsive  force  is  as  much  economic  as  political.  The  struggle  for 
life  in  a  town  like  Berdichev,  where  70,000  Jews  are  huddled  together 
under  the  saddest  conditions  of  want,  pressure  and  squalor,  can  end 
in  one  of  two  ways  only.  Either  the  poor  souls  must  die  or  they 
must  depart.  In  England  we  have  no  room  for  them  except  by 
lowering  the  general  rate  of  wages  in  the  trades  in  which  the  immi- 
grants compete,  and  thus  reproducing  in  London  itself  the  tortures 
and  tragedies  of  Berdichev.  (Michelet  said,  "  La  liberfe  serait  un 
mot  si  ro?i  gardaii  des  mceu7's  d'esclaves.")  The  refugees  from 
economic  conditions  that  are  insupportable  do  not  gain,  and  still  less 
impart,  the  liberty  they  seek,  when  they  are  accompanied  by  the 
very  conditions  from  which  they  fly.  To  exchange  the  religious 
serfdom  to  the  Czar  for  the  economic  serfdom  of  the  sweating-master 
of  Whitechapel  is  at  least  a  doubtful  advantage  to  the  serf  himself 
But  when  he  spreads  the  contagion  of  serfdom  in  his  new  home,  the 
hour  has  struck  for  the  rulers  of  a  free  people  to  look  first  to  the 
welfare  of  their  own  people  and  their  own  race,  before  admitting  the 
inefficient  surplus  of  a  lower  nation. 

There  is  little  sentiment  in  this  matter  of  immigration.  It  is  a 
business  matter.  Since  the  home  is  the  unit  of  the  nation,  celibate 
immigration  should  be  discouraged  by  adequate  restrictive  means. 
The  anti-Chinese  movement  arising  in  your  Pacific  Coast  was  justi- 
fied by  this  consideration  alone.  Any  nationality  should  be  carefully 
watched  when  the  female  immigrants  fall  below  thirty-five  per  cent. 


WHITE.  197 

of  the  whole.  On  this  basis  Russia,  Italy  and  Hungary  furnish 
unsatisfactory  records,  as  in  each  case  these  nations  contribute  more 
than  sixty-five  males  out  of  every  hundred  immigrants  of  their  respec- 
tive races  to  your  shores. 

To  recapitulate.  The  first  duty  of  the  statesman  of  a  great  nation, 
is  to  maintain  and  improve  the  best  standard  of  his  race  ;  to  free  it 
from  those  elements  that  tend  to  degrade  or  deteriorate  the  commu- 
nity; and  to  control  the  influx  of  human  beings  so  as  to  raise  rather 
than  lower  the  conditions  of  life  under  which  the  new  generation  of 
hand-workers  is  born.  Mixture  of  two  races  may  either  improve  or 
degrade  the  character  of  both.  The  fusion  of  incongruous  blood 
results  in  the  generation  of  a  mongrel  type.  The  mixture  of  con- 
gruous and  harmonious  types  results  in  the  production  of  a  race 
combining  the  characters  and  virtues  of  both,  and  the  vices  of  neither. 
What  higher  aim  can  the  leaders  of  our  common  race  pursue  than 
the  purification  and  development  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  type  ? 

If  these  things  be  so,  the  grounds  therefore  for  excluding  unsuit- 
able immigrants  from  America  and  England  are  : 

1.  The  degradation  of  the  racial  type. 

2.  The  unfair  competition  forced  upon  the  class  of  unskilled  wage- 
earners,  who  are  too  poor  and  too  numerous  to  combine  against 
unscrupulous  capitalists. 

3.  The  lowering  of  the  standard  of  life  among  the  classes  with 
whom  destitute  aliens  compete  in  the  unskilled  labor  market,  and 
the  consequent  contamination  of  character  of  the  native-born. 

4.  The  diversion  of  the  charity  fund  from  existing  national  distress. 

5.  In  the  case  of  the  Russian  exodus,  the  free  admission  to  the 
States  or  Great  Britain  of  destitute  multitudes  of  what  Mr,  N.  S. 
Joseph  calls  "  chronic  incurable  paupers,"  is  the  best  incentive  to  the 
Czar  and  his  ministers  to  persevere  in  their  policy  of  extermination. 

To  a  savage  or  a  child  the  surgeon's  knife  is  indistinguishable  from 
relentless  torture.  A  great  nation,  no  less  than  a  great  family,  is 
bound  by  duty  to  those  that  come  after  us,  no  less  than  to  the  gener- 
ation of  to-day,  to  do  nothing,  and  to  spare  no  one,  who  imperils  the 
realization  of  the  national  or  family  ideal. 


198  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

CHARITY  IN  BELGIUM. 

PROSPER  VAN  GEERT,  BUREAU  DE  BIENFAISANCE,  ANTWERP. 

The  Charity  Board. 

The  Charity  Boards  were  created  by  the  decree  of  7th  Frimaire, 
year  V  of  the  French  Republic  (November,  1796),  after  the  incor- 
poration of  the  Belgian  provinces.  The  purpose  of  the  present 
notes  not  being  the  narration  of  the  history  of  the  legislation,  but 
merely  that  of  the  facts  connected  with  the  Charity  B.oard,  we  shall 
simply  refer  to  the  act  sanctioning  its  institution.  This  act  contains 
in  its  tenth  section  a  provision  well  worth  remembering,  namely, 
that  all  assistance  giveii  at  home  shall  as  far  as  possible  be  in  kind. 

What  is  the  Charity  Board  ?  The  aim  of  the  Charity  Board  is  to 
assist  paupers  at  home.  So  that  so  long  as  there  can  be  no  question  of 
complete  support,  so  long  as  the  pauper  can  within  certain  limits  pro- 
vide for  his  personal  needs,  he  is  to  be  considered  indigent  and  as 
having  a  call  for  support  upon  the  Charity  Board.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  there  be  any  reason  for  committing  the  pauper  to  an  asylum,  in 
case  he  cannot  find  the  means  for  self-support,  he  must  needs  fall 
back  upon  the  civil  asylums,  which  are  themselves  managed  by  a 
special  board,  entirely  different  from  the  management  of  public 
charity. 

This  difference  forms  the  line  of  separation  between  the  two  official 
ways  of  practising  charity  in  Belgium.  The  home  assistance  is 
divided  into:  (a)  Assistance  in  money,  in  kind,  or  in  rent;  {b) 
Medical  assistance;  {c)  Assistance  given  to  abandoned  children. 

Assistance  in  Money,  in  Kind,  and  in  Rent. 

According  to  law,  assistance  in  kind  should  be  the  rule.  Logic, 
reason  and  experience  fully  corroborate  this.  In  fact,  how  often  is 
public  charity  defrauded  by  a  pauper  or  a  pseudo-pauper.  Conse- 
quently there  can  be  no  doubt  but  the  chance  of  making  a  bad  use 
of  the  gift  received  will  be  lessened  by  assistance  granted  in  kind. 
Gifts  in  kind  are  of  different  sorts ;  they  may  be  in  garments,  bed- 
ding, food,  or  fuel  (coals). 

The  Antwerp  Charity  Board  possesses  a  central  store  for  garments. 
The  prices  of  the  various  articles  are  posted  up  for  inspection.  Besides 
this  main  store,  three  branch  stores  are  kept  in  the  populous  quarters 


VAN    GEERT.  1 99 

of  the  city,  or  four  places  in  all  where  paupers  maj'^  procure  food  or 
fuel.  As  for  garments  and  bedding,  these  are  specially  delivered 
upon  remittance  by  the  pauper  of  tickets  ad  hoc,  filled  up  by  the 
visitors  of  the  poor,  and  countersigned  by  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee. They  may,  however,  also  be  delivered  by  the  central  com- 
mittee itself,  if  such  be  the*  pauper's  desire.  Such  is  also  the  case 
with  food  and  fuel. 

We  shall  now  take  the  liberty  of  entering  into  a  more  minute 
inspection  of  the  methods  of  work  of  a  Charity  Board. 

The  Charity  Board  is  placed  under  the  guidance  of  five  directors, 
appointed  by  the  town  authorities  out  of  a  double  list  of  candidates 
presented  by  the  Charity  Board  itself.  The  directors  are  appointed 
for  a  term  of  five  years,  unless  they  be  elected  to  fill  the  place  or  finish 
the  term  of  a  deceased  director  or  of  one  who  may  have  renounced. 
The  burgomaster  is  by  right  a  member  of  the  board,  exclusive  of 
the  five  directors  ;  he  has  a  deliberating  vote  and  is  chairman  of  the 
council.  However,  the  burgomaster  is  not  called  upon  to  fulfill 
this  mission  except  under  very  serious  circumstances. 

The  members  of  the  council  elect  among  themselves  a  president, 
an  ordonnator,  and  a  secretary,  dividing  any  other  kind  of  functions 
or  departments  among  the  rest  of  the  members. 

The  work  of  the  board  being  rather  extensive  at  Antwerp,  the 
secretary  is  elected  outside  the  council;  a  salary  is  granted  him,  but 
he  has  neither  a  deliberating  nor  a  consulting  vote.  He  is  the  chief 
of  the  corps  of  officials  employed  by  the  board.  The  council  is 
entitled  to  deliberate  when  three  of  its  members  at  least  are  present. 
General  or  permanent  assistance  is  granted  by  the  directors  during 
the  Friday  meetings.  The  pauper  then  appears  before  the  com- 
mittee; if  he  be  known,  which  is  ascertained  by  the  inscription  of 
his  number  in  his  marriage  certificate,  his  state  is  looked  up  and  the 
reports  sent  in  about  him  by  the  inspector  or  visitor  are  consulted. 
As  the  case  may  be,  a  gift  is  allowed  him  once  for  all,  or  a  permanent 
tax  is  granted  him,  according  to  the  wants  of  his  family.  The  latter 
allowance  is  generally  in  kind,  as  for  instance  two  francs  a  week  in 
kind.  The  pauper  himself  chooses  what  he  is  most  in  want  of 
All  the  prices  are  posted  up  by  quantum  of  25  centimes  (five  cents). 

What  is  the  part  of  the  inspectors  and  visitors?  The  visitors  of 
the  poor  are  not  piid,  devotion  alone  urging  them  to  practice 
charity;  they  take  the  tickets  home  to  the  poor  and  verify  whether 
the  assistance  allowed  continues  to  be  necessary.     They  also  carry 


200  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

about  with  them  a  number  of  cards  or  tickets  for  all  kinds  of  relief, 
which  they  are  entitled  to  grant  under  sanction  of  the  Committee  of 
Charity.  There  are  eleven  such  committees  at  Antwerp,  each  of  them 
composed  of  an  unlimited  number  of  visitors.  Each  visitor  has  a 
circumscription  of  a  certain  number  of  streets.  The  inspector  (one 
for  each  committee)  helps  the  committee  ;'  he  sends  in  reports  about 
the  cases  which  have  come  to  his  knowledge,  consults  the  states  and 
registers  for  the  booking  of  the  sums  or  quantities  granted,  and  keeps 
the  committees  and  the  directors  informed.    The  inspectors  are  paid. 

All  this  is  perfectly  democratic.  The  pauper  is  quite  free  to 
choo-e  what  he  likes,  and  thus  receives  what  he  is  in  want  of.  One 
thing,  however,  must  disappear,  and  is  condemned  to  disappear  ere 
long,  ?.  e.  the  allowance  of  assistance  by  the  visitors  and  directors  as 
well  as  the  Friday  meetings. 

These  meetings  are  a  disgrace.  Fifty  or  sixty  persons  flock 
together  in  one  room  at  a  certain  moment  and  are  there  compelled 
to  lay  bare  their  shame,  thus  throwing  more  shame  upon  society. 
However,  not  for  a  long  time  to  come ;  for,  as  we  said,  these  meetings 
are  condemned  to  disappear. 

According  to  the  new  regulations  now  in  course  of  elaboration, 
the  pauper  will  apply  personally  to  an  official  ad  hoc  who  will  be  in 
attendance  at  the  office,  or  to  his  visitor,  or  even  to  the  director. 
All  operations  will  be  transferred  to  the  central  office  every  day. 
The  next  day  the  inspector  will  send  in  his  report,  which  will  have 
to  be  submitted  to  the  local  committee  after  the  visit  by  the  visitor; 
the  committee  will  then  allow  the  assistance,  unless  the  council  of 
directors,  who  are  to  ratify  the  allowance,  decide  otherwise.  This 
will  be  a  thoroughly  uselul  reform,  as  it  will  avoid  giving  twice  and 
will  cause  the  assistance  to  turn  out  useful;  but  above  all,  it  will 
spare  the  pauper  the  mortification  of  being  obliged  to  apply  for  sup- 
port in  public,  an  oblig^ition  which  now  makes  him  devoid  of  all 
shame  and  restraint  and  almost  teaches  him  pauperism. 

The  work  of  the  Charity  Board  should  be  a  regenerating  work  as 
\yell  as  one  of  assistance,  and  lor  this  very  reason  it  should  avoid 
hurting  any  feeling  of  shame  and  fear  in  the  breast  of  the  wretched 
pauper,  lest  this  feeling  be  caused  to  wear  off  and  the  pauper  urged  to 
seek  a  maintenHnce  in  pauperism. 

With  regard  to  the  above  statement  we  venture  to  point  to  the 
line  of  working  now  being  followed  by  the  Antwerp  Charity  Board, 
whose  great  aim  is  to  try  to  regenerate  the  pauper  by  allowing  him 


VAN    GEERT.  20I 

assistance  once  and  for  all,  but  in  sufficient  quantity.  For  indeed  it 
cannot  suffice  to  say,  "We  give  you  two,  three  or  four  francs  a 
week,  your  state  being  a  wretched  one;  go  and  make  the  best  of  that 
sum."  The  individual's  position  should  be  examined  and  the  proper 
way  of  assisting  him  ascertained.  We  therefore  feel  sure  a  single 
gift  of  five  hundred  francs,  well  employed,  is  far  preferable  to  weekly 
gifts  of  say  two  francs. 

By  means  of  the  two  francs  a  week  a  focus  of  pauperism,  wretch- 
edness and  mendicity  is  created,  fatally  leading  to  an  increase  in  the 
number  of  persons  kept  at  the  pauper's  asylum  at  Hoogstraeten, 
where  charity  colonies  are  formed;  whereas  when,  for  example,  a  man 
has  a  small  business  which  he  can  no  longer  keep  up,  he  may  work 
himself  out  of  misery  by  means  of  the  sum  he  is  in  need  of;  if  he  be 
an  artisan,  some  tools  may  be  bought  for  him  and  work  given  him. 
It  also  often  happens  that  assistance  is  given  to  wives  whose  hus- 
bands have  left  for  America,  the  passage  money  being  paid  by 
us.  After  a  lapse  of  time  the  great  country  of  labor  generally  regen- 
erates them,  and  very  seldom  do  any  of  these  people  return  to 
Europe.  The  most  beautiful  task  of  the  director  is  the  regeneration 
of  the  pauper  by  means  of  one  single  gift  in  money. 

Relief  in  the  form  of  rent  comes  next,  and  however  rare  its  practice 
may  have  been  up  to  the  present  moment,  the  city  of  Antwerp  is 
about  to  make  atrial  by  procuring  a  hundred  rooms  foraged  people. 
In  fact,  why  should  old  people,  husbands  and  wives,  be  kept  sepa- 
rated in  asylums,  where  they  have  to  mess  at  a  common  table  and 
are  obliged  to  lead  a  convent  life  ? 

Our  dream,  now  about  to  be  realized,  is  the  construction  of  a 
building  for  old  paupers,  male  and  female,  where  the  sexes  are  not 
kept  apart,  where  every  one  can  live  as  if  he  were  at  home,  in  his 
own  large,  airy  room,  cooking  his  own  food,  as  long  as  they  do  not 
dine  out  at  their  children's,  which  will  be  the  rule  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. Thus  we  hope  to  prevent  the  breaking-up  of  family  life  as 
well  as  the  respect  due  to  aged  people.  The  asylum,  indeed,  only 
becomes  necessary  when  the  old  pauper  is  impotent,  and  in  such 
a  case  he  has  to  fall  back  for  entire  support  upon  the  Board  of 
Asylums. 

Here  ends  the  first  part  of  the  task.  I  might,  indeed,  add  a  few 
words  about  the  desirability  of  uniting  the  two  Boards  of  Charity,  with 
a  view  upon  the  budget  as  well  as  with  regard  to  the  paupers.  But 
hie  non  locus  est.     So  let  us  analyze  the  facts. 


202  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

Medical  Assistance. 

The  sick  pauper  does  not  always  go  to  the  hospital.  If  he  be 
under  treatment  at  home,  or  rather  if  his  sickness  is  of  such  a  nature 
that  he  can  walk  about  and  leave  his  house,  he  has  to  look  to  the 
Charity  Board  for  assistance.  The  pauper  then  goes  to  the  dispen- 
saries of  the  board,  where  he  finds  two  doctors  in  attendance  for  two 
hours  every  day,  with  all  the  instruments  for  practising  chirurgery  in 
case  of  need,  in  so  far  as  small  operations  may  be  required.  The 
pauper  receives  a  doctor's  ticket,  which  is  never  refused  him  except 
in  case  of  duly  stated  abuse.  For,  sickness  being  the  shortest  road 
to  misery,  given  medical  assistance  should  always  be  given  promptly, 
as  we  cannot  be  too  lavish  in  distributing  the  benefits  of  medical 
science. 

Sixteen  physicians  are  attached  to  the  board  service.  They  also 
visit  the  pauper  at  home  if  he  cannot  go  out,  for  notwithstanding  the 
admirable  organization  of  the  Antwerp  hospitals,  many  a  poor  patient 
persists  in  his  erroneous  notion  that  "  the  hospital  is  a  place  to  be 
shunned."  So  deeply  is  the  spirit  of  antipathy  against  hospitals 
still  rooted  in  the  working  classes. 

We  know  full  well  it  may  seem  hard  to  have  to  leave 'your  family 
with  the  prospect  of  never  seeing  them  back  again.  How  humane 
would  it  be  if  we  could  find  means  to  have  every  one  treated  at  home; 
but  how  could  we  do  so  now,  in  the  present  state  of  the  homes  of  our 
working  people,  without  the  proper  quantum  of  air  and  space?  Con- 
sequently, for  the  patient's  sake  as  well  as  for  that  of  health  he 
should  be  taken  to  the  hospital.  And  that  is  what  we  should 
endeavor  to  make  our  working  people  understand. 

Our  new  rules  are  essentially  democratic.  The  pauper  chooses 
his  own  doctor  as  well  as  his  own  method  of  treatment.  Recovery 
IS  very  often  dependent  on  confidence.  Do  we  not  choose  ourselves 
Doctor  So-and-so  because  he  has  our  confidence  ?  Why  should  not 
the  same  latitude  be  given  to  the  pauper,  if  he  thinks  more  of  the 
doctor  of  another  section  than  of  the  physician  of  his  own?  Why 
refuse  him  that  satisfaction?  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  pauper 
believes  in  homoeopathy,  why  should  we  refuse  him  the  aid  of  that 
school,  which  the  rich  are  free  to  call  in  ? 

The  Charity  Board  has  no  right  to  proclaim  the  excellence  of  any 
system  ;  its  only  task  is  to  look  after  the  common  possession  of  the 
poor;  by  means  of  its  revenue  it  is  to  see  that  the  pauper  obtains  the 
greatest  possible  source  of  welfare,  the  greatest  number  of  means  apt 


VAX    GEERT.  2O3 

to  relieve  him  in  his  misery.  Therefore  we  have  considered  it  to  be 
our  duty  to  grant  the  pauper  these  two  liberties:  that  of  choosing 
his  own  doctor  as  well  as  the  method  of  treatment. 

Such  is  the  constitution  of  the  two  first  branches  of  the  Charity 
Board.  We  could  also  add  a  great  many  different  departments: 
we  could  explain  the  way  in  which  our  offices  are  kept,  what  is  our 
position  with  regard  to  the  provincial  government,  to  the  stale; 
what  is  the  sense  of  the  law  on  home  stipport,  and  what  relations  we 
entertain  with  the  various  commons  of  the  country.  We  might  also 
treat  of  the  service  of  funerals  for  paupers,  which  is  now  done  by 
order,  whereas  formerly  the  pauper  was  interred  by  the  lowest  bidder, 
just  as  if  he  had  been  a  parcel.  It  might  be  useful  to  explain  what 
our  colonies  of  Hoogstraeten  Merxplas  are,  and  our  depot  at  Bruges  ; 
the  suppression  of  these  institutions  might  form  the  subject  oi  a  dis- 
cussion, as  also  their  eventual  disappearance  through  the  foundation 
of  charity  colonies  in  the  Congo  Free  State,  as  it  was  proposed  dur- 
ing the  National  Conference  in  1891.  We  might  also  mention  the 
various  resources  of  the  board,  the  produce  ol  balls,  theatricals  ar.d 
concerts,  as  also  the  objects  which  ought  to  be  taxed  with  a  view  of 
supporting  public  charity.  But  all  that  would  lead  us  too  far ;  our 
object  was  the  exposition  of  the  above  facts,  which  we  venture  to 
hope  have  been  exposed  with  sufficient  clearness  and  concision. 

Abandoned  Children. 

Section  2  of  the  act  of  July  30,  1834,  places  the  abandoned 
children  under  the  charge  of  the  Charity  Committee,  and  although 
the  above-named  act  has  been  cancelled  by  the  subsequent  law  of 
March  14,  1876,  in  its  section  43  the  obligations  of  the  Charity 
Committee  have  not  been  altered  and  their  position  is  left  quite 
identical. 

Abandoned  children  (see  the  imperial  decree  of  January  19,  181 1) 
are  those  who,  born  of  father  and  mother  who  are  known  to 
have  brought  them  up,  or  who  have  been  brought  up  by  other  per- 
sons having  those  children  in  charge,  have  subsequently  been  left 
alone,  the  persons  who  had  them  in  charge  having  disappeared,  and 
no  call  upon  the  parents  being  possible.  It  would  seem  that  such  a 
definition  could  only  refer  to  parents  having  absconded  from  their 
natural  obligations  by  flight.  This  is  not  so,  however.  It  has  been 
decided  (see  royal  decree  of  November  22,  1861)  that  an  asylum 
may  receive  children  although  the  place  of  residence  of  the  parents 


204  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

be  known  since  the  origin.  In  fact,  it  is  concluded  that  in  using  the 
expression  "  when  no  call  upon  the  parents  is  possible,"  the  law  has 
meant  an  "  efficacious  "  call,  the  effect  of  which  would  be  to  put  an 
end  to  the  necessity  of  supporting  the  child.  And  in  consequence 
of  the  above  interpretation,  children  whose  parents  were  at  the  hos- 
pital or  in  prison  have  been  admitted  ever  since  the  law  has  been  in 
force. 

Wishing  to  work  according  to  the  true  spirit  of  charity,  our  com- 
mittee has  also  decided  that  after  a  special  decision  of  the  council 
of  directors,  the  board  could  also  admit  "  morally  abandoned  chil- 
dren." Several  cases  have  occurred  under  exceptional  circum- 
stances, and  the  decision  of  the  committee  has  always  been  favorable. 

The  guardianship  over  children  abandoned  by  their  parents  is 
regulated  by  the  act  or  decree  of  15-25  Pluviose,  year  XIII  (Feb- 
ruary 4-14,  1805).  One  of  the  members  of  the  directing  committee 
is  to  be  the  guardian,  the  others  forming  the  family  council.  It  is, 
however,  very  doubtful  whether  this  decree  also  refers  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Charity  Board,  the  law  being  very  incomplete.  The 
guardianship  therefore  is  merely  temporary  and  only  lasts  until  the 
return  of  the  parents. 

A  law  should  be  carried  taking  this  guardianship  from  the  parents 
by  a  decision  of  the  court,  after  consultation  of  the  Charity  Board, 
and  transferring  it  to  a  member  of  that  board.  As  matters  stand 
now,  all  is  vague  and  the  greatest  conflicts  are  possible.  For  instance, 
the  reimbursement  of  the  sums  spent  in  supporting  the  child  is  per- 
mitted in  case  of  return  of  the  parents,  according  to  the  text  of  the 
act  of  January  19,  1811,  section  21. 

Everything  remains  to  be  done  in  that  quarter.  However,  in  the 
meanwhile  we  have  gone  forward  as  far  as  possible.  We  have 
studied  what  could  be  done  for  abandoned  children,  opinions  having 
widely  differed  on  that  subject. 

Section  9  of  the  decree  of  January  19,  1811,  authorizes  children 
over  six  years  of  age  to  be  bound  apprentices  to  countrymen  and 
artisans,  as  far  as  may  be  found  possible.  But  far  from  being  pos- 
sible, this  is  much  rather  barbarous  ;  for  who  would  think  of  sending 
a  child  of  six  to  the  workshop  or  the  plough  ? 

Several  members  have  expressed  the  wish  of  seeing  the  children 
sent  into  family  life  in  the  country,  under  the  survey  of  an  inspector. 
That  was  the  old  system  and  has  its  supporters  even  now.  A  very 
good  pamphlet  was  even  published  on  the  subject  by  the  honorable 


VAN    GEERT.  205 

alderman  of  finances  of  the  city  of  Ghent.  But  experience  has  taught 
us  that  this  system  could  lead  to  nothing  but  one  vast  swindle. 
Besides,  how  could  the  moral  education  of  the  children  be  looked 
to  ;  and  is  not  moral  education  the  great  point  when  you  are  to  lose 
sight  of  them  ? 

Other  members  were  for  sending  them  into  the  country  to  our 
farmers.  This  was  better,  no  doubt,  but  you  cannot  make  a  farmer 
out  of  every  child  ;  moreover,  the  instruction  to  be  found  in  the  rural 
schools  is  far  from  answering  the  desiderata  of  our  board.  Over- 
sight, too,  is  difficult. 

It  has  therefore  been  necessary  to  make  a  call  upon  the  resources 
of  modern  society  to  find  the  best  system.  Up  to  the  age  of  twelve 
the  child  is  now  left  in  charge  of  the  teacher.  Asylums  are  to  be 
built  for  such  children,  where  they  can  find  family  life  and  go  to 
school  every  day  just  like  the  children  of  our  working  people. 
These  asylums  will  have  to  be  double ;  one  for  girls,  another  for 
boys.  The  asylum  for  girls  will  also  accept  girls  of  over  twelve 
years  of  age,  and  the  children  will  be  kept  there  until  some  situation 
is  found  for  them  outside. 

In  the  meantime  all  the  occupations  of  a  woman  of  the  people  will 
be  taught  them,  as  sewing,  knitting,  washing,  ironing  and  cooking. 
A  nursery  will  be  opened  for  babes  less  than  four  years  old.  Accord- 
ing to  physical  strength  the  girls  will  consequently  be  formed  as 
cooks,  chambermaids,  nurses,  washerwomen  or  seamstresses.  All 
the  work  is  done  at  the  establishment,  so  that  the  girls  will  find  com- 
plete instruction  as  well  as  the  example  of  greatest  economy,  which 
will  be  the  rule  at  the  asylum. 

After  school  years  are  past  the  boys  find  our  baker's  shop,  where 
the  bread  for  paupers  is  baked,  as  well  as  buns,  cakes,  etc.  The 
bakery  is  now  in  existence,  as  well  as  a  shoemaker's  shop,  where  the 
shoes  for  all  the  boys  and  girls  are  made.  Moreover,  the  shoe- 
maker also  works  for  his  own  account,  even  for  families  in  town ;  we 
now  possess  about  a  thousand  houses  in  the  city  as  property  of  our 
fund  ;  we  therefore  opened  a  joiner's,  a  painter's  and  a  plumber's 
workshop  to  keep  them  in  repair.  In  every  workshop  we  have 
placed  two,  three  or  four  boys,  living  there  with  the  master,  and 
thus  finding  a  family  life ;  in  the  evening  the  boys  go  to  the  schools 
for  adults;  on. Sundays  they  repair  to  what  we  call  the  "  Patronages  " 
in  such  a  way  that  they  are  learning  their  trade  and  finishing  their 
primary  instruction  at  the  same  time.     We  have,  moreover,  come 


206  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

into  connection  lately  with  the  Ostend  school  for  sailor-boys  and 
with  the  militar}'- authorities,  so  that  we  hope  to  find  there  another 
couple  of  ways  out  by  the  formation  of  sailors  or  soldiers,  for 
instance  when  some  of  our  boys  are  sons  of  shippers,  or  when 
through  some  circumstances  over  which  we  have  no  control  other 
boys  may  have  had  no  time  for  learning  a  trade  and  express  a  wish 
of  joining  the  army. 

Last,  not  least,  and  to  crown  the  work,  plans  have  now  been 
adopted  for  the  creation  of  a  large  model  farm  at  Schilde  near  Ant- 
werp, with  lands  covering  an  area  of  about  200  acres,  so  that  those 
amongst  our  boys  who  are  not  willing  to  become  artisans  will  have 
a  chance  of  being  excellent  husbandmen  one  day,  capable  of  turning 
to  profit  the  numerous  rural  possessions  belonging  to  the  Charity 
Boards. 

This  farm  will,  moreover,  produce  all  the  food  generally  drawn 
from  our  soil  for  the  use  of  our  charity  institutions  and  that  of  our 
poor  in  general,  so  that  the  Charity  Board  will  become  a  kind  of 
collectivity  managed  by  all  for  the  profit  of  all,  to  the  greatest 
benefit  of  those  dependent  on  it,  and  causing  the  least  expense 
possible  to  those  who  are  obliged  to  maintain  it. 

Such  is  in  raw  outlines  the  service  of  abandoned  children  at 
Antwerp.  Still  above  all  that,  stands  a  new  principle  based  upon  the 
whole  and  which  we  feel  must  be  put  forward  here.  For  indeed  the 
Antwerp  Charity  Board  has  been  the  first  to  introduce  farming  into 
the  management.  A  committee  has  been  formed  of  lady  patrons 
who  undertake  the  oversight  and  economy  of  our  two  institutions. 

The  care  of  a  good  father  would  not  suffice  in  this  instance  and 
woman's  task  is  called  for.  Here,  in  this-  continuous  work  of  the 
formation  of  the  child's  character,  woman  can,  if  she  will,  show  all 
the  devotion  she  is  capable  of,  together  with  her  full  power  of  educa- 
tion and  household  management.  At  Antwerp  a  beginning  was 
made;  five  ladies,  the  directors'  wives,  being  incorporated  into  the 
board,  together  with  another  lady  member,  the  wife  of  one  of  our 
colleagues  of  the  Asylums  Board,  noted  for  her  devotion  and  com- 
passionate nature.  Moreover,  the  Burgomaster's  wife  was  elected 
honorary  president.  The  precedent  thus  established,  this  committee 
will  require  to  be  extended  considerably,  so  as  to  be  able  to  find  as 
many  good  situations  as  possible  for  our  pupils. 

Meanwhile  the  Charity  Board  has  great  hopes  of  seeing  this  inno- 
vation crowned  by  success. 


GROSSETESTE-THIERRY.  20/ 

RELIEF  BY  WORK  IN  FRANCE. 

M.    GROSSETESTE-THIERRY,    PARIS. 
[translation.] 

Relief  by  work  in  France  is  not  an  innovation  due  to  the  initiative 
of  private  individuals.  From  the  most  remote  period  of  our  history 
it  has  been  practiced  by  the  state  towards  mendicants.  The  depri- 
vation of  liberty  and  confinement  in  workshops,  where  they  were 
compelled  to  work  from  twelve  to  thirteen  hours  a  day,  superseded 
corporal  punishment  for  all  able-bodied  persons  found  begging  in 
city  or  country.  Louis  XVI.  opened  "  houses  of  charity  "  {^maisons 
de  charite)  for  them.  The  National  Assembly  and  the  Convention, 
"  thinking  that  labor  is  the  only  means  by  which  wise  and  enlight- 
ened nations  can  relieve  poverty,"  distributed  considerable  sums  of 
money  among  the  departments,  to  be  expended  in  drainage,  the 
clearing  of  land,  the  digging  of  canals,  etc.  The  Empire  established 
"depots  of  mendicity,"  in  which  "all  persons  asking  aid,  or  having 
no  means  of  support,  shall  be  detained  until  they  have  learned  to 
earn  their  own  living  at  some  kind  of  work." 

It  would  seem  as  if  such  measures  ought  to  have  exercised  a  salu- 
tary influence  upon  vagrancy  and  mendicity,  and  yet  their  failure 
was  complete.  In  analyzing  the  result  obtained  by  private  action, 
superseding  that  of  the  state,  we  find  the  cause  of  this  failure. 

I. 

If  we  study  the  poor  as  a  whole,  we  are  soon  convinced  that 
the  best  argument  in  favor  of  work  is  that  the  professional  beggar 
dreads  it.  Private  action  makes  use  of  this  very  repulsion  to  unmask 
imposture  and  aid  the  truly  unfortunate. 

A  Parisian  was  the  pioneer  in  this  movement.  Under  the  very 
suggestive  name  of  Pierre  de  Touche  (Touchstone),  M.  Mamoz  has 
created  a  work  which  has  been  of  signal  service  to  all  who  were  for- 
merly the  victims  of  epistolary  begging.  A  person  receiving  a  letter, 
in  which  the  most  bitter  misfortunes  are  related  in  the  most  delicate 
terms,  and  which  ends  in  a  demand  for  help,  has  only  to  send  the 
name  and  address  of  the  writer  to  M.  Mamoz  to  have  any  doubt 
dispelled.  The  Pierre  de  Touche  makes  inquiries,  gives  the  results 
to  the  inquirer,  and,  at  his  request,  gives  aid  to  the  applicant  in  the 


208  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

form  of  sewing.  The  articles  made  are  bought  by  charitable  persons 
and  distributed  among  the  poor.  "  Make  the  poor  work  to  help 
other  poor  people  "  is  the  motto  of  a  work  which  has  attracted  gen- 
eral sympathy.  This  for  the  women.  For  the  men  M.  Mamoz  has 
established  an  intelligence  office  {office  de  pub  lie  He),  d.nd  is  constantly 
exercising  his  ingenuity  to  find  employment  suited  to  their  ability. 
Twenty  years'  devotion  to  this  delicate  and  often  difficult  work  has 
made  of  this  good  man  a  veritable  apostle  of  relief  by  work. 

In  1880  Pastor  Robin  founded  at  Belleville,  the  most  populous 
quarter  of  Paris,  the  Maison  Hospitaliere.  Here  we  find  the  work 
ticket  {bon  de  travail)  in  use  in  nearly  all  French  institutions.  A 
work  ticket  of  1.5  francs  torn  from  a  sort  of  coupon-book  permits  its 
supporters  to  send  to  this  institution  the  poor  and  unemployed,  who 
find  there  "a  kind  reception,  cordial  and  comforting  words,  food, 
shelter,  and  a  place  in  the  workshops,  with  liberty  to  go  out  in  the 
morning  to  look  for  work  at  their  own  trades."  Assisted  persons  are 
employed  at  making  small  fagots  called  margotins.  They  are  not 
paid  in  money;  but  in  this  way  they  meet  their  daily  expenses,  and, 
if  they  are  skillful,  can  have  something  to  their  credit  when  they 
leave.  They  are  required  to  make  fifty  margoti?is  a  day,  which 
entitles  them  to  1.5  francs,  represented  by  two  meals  and  a  lodging. 
All  they  make  above  this  goes  to  their  credit. 

The  results  for  1892  are  as  follows:  Of  959  admitted  into  the 
maison  hospitaliere,  695  worked  on  an  average  14J  days;  14,275.95 
francs  were  expended  and  13,270.25  francs  received — a  cost  of  ten 
centimes  per  day  per  man,  a  very  satisfactory  result  when  compared 
with  similar  work.  264  men  were  dismissed  for  refusing  to  work  or 
for  insufficient  work. 

The  object  which  Pastor  Robin  has  sought  for  thirteen  years  is  to 
provide  the  workingman  gratuitously  with  an  outfit  of  tools  and  to 
make  him  the  beneficiary  of  all  his  labor.  Charles  Robert  has  said 
of  the  Maison  Hospitaliere,  "  the  work  is  beautiful  and  the  idea  which 
it  realizes  is  a  grand  one."  So  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  assistance 
of  the  government  and  of  the  numerous  friends  of  the  work  has 
enabled  Pastor  Robin  to  construct  a  building  which  will  accommo- 
date from  45  to  50  inmates. 

The  Hospitality  par  le  Travail  (lodging  and  food  for  work), 
which  is  under  the  direction  of  a  religious  body,  receives  annually 
about  1,500  women,  who  are  employed  at  washing  and  ironing  for 
schools  and  for  private  families;   they  also  make   artificial  flowers. 


GROSSETESTE-THIERRY. 


209 


These  women  remain  here  about  twenty  days ;  they  receive  no 
wages,  but  are  fed  and  lodged,  and  places  are  found  for  them  when 
opportunity  offers. 

The  gift  of  a  considerable  sum  enabled  an  institution,  known  as  the 
Central  Office  for  Charitable  Works,  to  construct  in  1891,  on  land 
contiguous  to  the  property  of  the  Hospitalite  par  le  Travail,  some 
buildings  designed  to  receive  the  unemployed.  This  refuge  has 
been  confided  to  the  care  of  Sister  St.  Antoine,  who  has  charge  of 
the  woman's  establishment.  Here,  in  very  rudimentary  workshops, 
with  the  help  of  inexperienced  assistants,  she  has  in  a  few  months 
established  a  centre  of  considerable  production,  and  one  which 
satisfies  the  demands  of  an  exacting  clientele. 

The  men,  coming  from  all  parts  of  Paris,  soured  by  poverty  and 
employed  at  work  of  which  they  are  generally  ignorant,  are  sepa- 
rated into  groups  of  ten  under  charge  of  overseers,  and  make  com- 
mon furniture — tables,  wardrobes,  sideboards — which  is  sold  at  a  low 
price  in  the  large  stores  of  the  capital.  There  are  about  70  of  these 
men,  and  their  stay  is  limited  to  20  days.  Their  wages  are  2 
francs  a  day ;  of  this  they  receive  80  centimes  in  cash  in  the  morn- 
ing for  their  food,  which  is  supplied  by  the  establishment,  and  also  a 
lodging  ticket,  worth  40  centimes,  which  entitles  them  to  a  lodging 
out  of  the  house.  45  centimes  are  reserved  to  defray  their  expenses 
when  they  are  looking  for  permanent  employment.  Two  days  a 
week  are  allowed  for  this  purpose.  The  central  office  has  estab- 
lished a  regular  bureau  of  information,  through  which  it  obtains 
knowledge  of  the  shops  where  there  are  vacant  places. 

These  institutions  are  in  operation  all  over  Paris,  and  undoubtedly 
exercise  an  ameliorating  effect  upon  the  unfortunate.  But  their 
influence  upon  street  beggars  is  not  so  direct  as  that  of  the  Relief 
Unions  ( Unions  (T Assistance),  whose  sphere  of  activity  is  more 
restricted.  These  have  made  the  profession  of  begging  a  very 
difficult  one  by  means  of  the  food-ticket,  which  puts  a  stop  to  indis- 
criminate charity,  and  forces  the  beggar  to  present  himself  at  some 
place  where  he  is  subjected  to  a  summary  questioning,  which  it  is 
generally  his  interest  to  avoid. 

II. 

The  municipal  council  of  the  city  of  Paris  has  created — on  land 
belonging  to  the  department  of  public  relief,  in  the  department  of  the 
Marne — an  agricultural  colony,  which  is  intended  to  find  for  working 


2IO  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

men  who  have  fallen  into  poverty  definite  occupation  in  rural  labor, 
after  their  moral  and  material  restoration  has  been  effected  by 
regular  and  suitable  work. 

This  colony,  which  has  been  in  existence  since  January,  1892,  at 
the  himlet  of  Chalmelle,  receives,  after  inquiries  made  at  the  Hotel 
de  Ville,  unmarried  men,  to  whom  are  given  clothing,  food  and 
lodging.  These  men  are  formed  into  squads,  according  to  their 
aptitudes  or  the  necessities  of  work,  ufider  the  orders  of  superin- 
tendents of  farming  or  of  shops,  and  receive  50  centimes  a  day. 
Some  perquisites  are  allowed  them  in  the  form  of  savings-bank 
books.  Their  stay  in  the  colony  is  not  limited,  but  it  was  observed 
that  between  January  and  October,  1892,  the  entire  personnel  had 
changed. 

The  disciplinary  measures  employed  are:  first,  a  reprimand; 
second,  withholding  wages  and  transferring  them  to  fund  for  perqui- 
sites ;  third,  consignment  to  the  farm  on  Sunday  ;  fourth,  expulsion. 
The  labor  consists  in  improving  a  section,  which  has  been  neglected 
for  years,  by  drainage,  cleaning  and  various  kinds'  of  cultivation. 
The  winter  is  employed  in  repairing  farming  implements  and  in  the 
little  farm  work  that  is  necessary. 

This  labor  is  not  very  productive,  because  it  is  unskilled  and 
changes  are  so  frequent.  This  institution  will  not  be  a  success  until 
it  is  under  the  direction  of  earnest  men  who  know  how  to  excite  a 
spirit  of  emulation  and  a  love  of  work  in  the  colonists. 

In  1892,  57  colonists  were  received  at  Chalmelle,  of  whom  18  were 
from  20  to  30  years  old,  17  from  30  to  40,  16  from  40  to  50,  and  6 
from  50  to  60  years  old. 

Of  the  31  who  left  the  establishment,  4  were  expelled  for  drunken- 
ness or  insubordination,  12  left  voluntarily,  and  15  were  placed  by 
the  directory. 

The  actual  sum  expended  was  15,000  francs,  but  the  commission 
hope  that  three  years  of  good  work  will  be  sufficient  to  balance 
receipts  and  expenditures. 

In  an  agricultural  country  like  France  these  colonies  are  needed 
to  regenerate  the  mass  of  farm  laborers  who,  having  been  tempted, 
not  only  by  the  mirage  of  a  great  city,  but  also  by  the  number  of 
charitable  institutions  found  there,  believe  that  they  can  obtain  better 
or  lessiaborious  situations.  These  men,  having  wasted  their  small 
savings,  are  fatally  tempted  to  join  the  often  formidable  hosts  of  the 
abodes  of  night,  and  become  beggars,  and  at  last  criminals. 


GROSSETESTE-THIERRY.  2  1 1 

The  agricultural  colony  draws  them  "out  of  this  morbid  atmosphere, 
restores  their  confidence  in  themselves,  which  the  disillusions  of  life 
and  contact  with  vice  have  destroyed,  and  prepares  them,  by  a 
sustained  activity  of  several  months,  to  resume  an  honorable  place 
among  their  fellow-men. 

III. 

The  magnificent  outburst  of  charity  provoked  by  the  rigorous 
winter  of  1890  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  private  initiative.  All  the 
asylums  overflowed  with  mendicants,  who  crowded  the  streets.  The 
Champs  de  Mars  was  transformed  into  a  vast  caravansary  of  idle 
men,  who  excited  a  feeling  of  insecurity  everywhere,  and  who  did 
not  disappear  until  they  were  required  to  establish  their  identity  or 
go  to  work. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  societies  or  unions  for  relief  by  work  were 
established.  This  form  of  relief  results  almost  immediately,  in  those 
districts  where  it  is  in  operation,  in  a  very  perceptible  diminution  of 
the  number  of  its  idle  or  pauper  impostors.  In  fact,  thanks  to  its 
restrictions  and  its  almost  daily  communication  with  the  Bureau  of 
Charitable  Relief  (^Bureau  de  Bienfaisance)  of  the  municipality, 
the  Union  for  Relief  has  been  able  to  establish  a  local  clientele  ;  for 
by  means  of  the  work-ticket  it  gets  rid  of  the  professional  beggar. 
We  find  such  a  society  in  the  XVII  arrondissement,  under  the  title 
of"  Soci^te  (V  Assistance  de  B  atignolles-  MonceauT 

This  society  opened  its  workshop  on  the  15th  of  February,  1892. 
Its  founder,  like  Pastor  Robin,  chose  the  making  of  kindling-wood, 
an  occupation  at  which  any  well  person  can  work  without  serving  an 
apprenticeship.  The  assessment  made  on  the  patrons  of  the  society 
is  six  francs  a  year.  A  grant  of  15,000  francs  from  the  Mutual  Pools 
(^Paris  Muhiet)  has  enabled  it  to  erect  a  building  in  which,  in  six 
months,  160  paupers  found  refuge.  They  worked  1844  days  and 
earned  2,781.25  francs,  at  the  rate  of  1.50  francs  per  day.  The 
society  pays  their  wages  in  cash,  for  it  does  not  provide  for  them  in 
the  house.  A  committee  of  lady  managers  superintends  the  work 
of  the  women.  266  women  passed  through  the  workshop  this  year; 
there  were  paid  to  them  3,427.90  francs,  and  the  finished  work  was 
sent  to  the  school  board  to  clothe  poor  children,  or  was  distributed 
gratuitously  to  the  needy. 

The  BiireaJi  de  Bienfaisance  of  the  XVII  arrondissement,  which 
is  the  organ  of  the  department  of  public  relief,  lias  adopted  one 


212  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

measure  which  does  credit  to  its  members  and  shows  how  great  is 
the  desire  to  deprive  impostors  of  official  aid.  It  gives  to  the 
assisted  tickets  of  seventy-five  centimes,  payable  after  three  hours' 
work  in  the  shops  of  the  society.  It  is  evident  that  this  change  in 
the  form  of  official  relief  will,  if  it  becomes  general,  have  a  consider- 
able influence  on  the  mass  of  pauperism  and  on  the  apportionment 
made  to  the  honest  poor.  This  work-ticket  in  use  in  every  ward  of 
a  large  city  must  be  considered  one  of  the  most  powerful  agents 
■3.^d\wi,X. professional  begging. 

This  society  aims  to  assist  only  those  who  are  worthy  of  help ;  to 
give  aid  only  by  finding  work  for  those  who  are  well,  and  by  relieving 
the  necessities  of  the  unfortunate  whom  stoppage  of  work,  sickness  or 
reverses  prevent  from  taking  care  of  themselves.  Its  operation  is 
assured  by  an  assessment  of  ten  francs  a  year,  by  subsidies  and  by 
donations.  It  issues  two  tickets.  One  is  green,  of  the  value  of  ten 
centimes,  which  any  one  can  obtain  from  the  agent  of  the  Union; 
this  "ticket"  cannot  be  used  by  the  recipient  until  it  has  been 
exchanged  for  a  food-ticket;  it  represents  pressing  need.  The  other 
ticket  is  gray,  folds  up  like  an  envelope,  and  is  worth  what  the  giver 
pleases.  It  may  contain  a  simple  request  or  recommendation  for  aid 
either  in  money  or  work. 

If  the  person  assisted  is  a  well  person,  this  ticket  is  earned  by 
sweeping  the  streets  at  2  francs  a  day  of  six  hours,  by  making 
margotins  in  the  shop  of  the  society  of  BatignoUes  at  1.50  francs,  or 
by  working  in  the  carpenter's  shop  of  Sister  St.  Antoine  at  2  francs 
a  day.  Women  are  paid  for  sewing  or  knitting,  which  they  do  at 
home  or  in  shops  affiliated  with  the  Union,  at  i  franc  or  1.75  francs 
a  day  according  to  their  skill.  The  work  of  the  women  has  produced 
over  3000  francs  in  ten  months. 

The  Relief  Union  of  the  XVI  arrondissement,  having  no  work- 
shops of  its  own,  is  associated  with  others  which  have  them,  and 
employs  its  beneficiaries  and  carries  their  wages  to  the  credit  of 
these  latter  Unions.  These  wages  are  the  aid  inscribed  on  gray  tickets 
transformed  into  work.  All  sums  charged  are  collected  every 
quarter  from  subscribers.  In  this  way  the  Relief  Union  of  the 
XVI  has,  during  the  last  year,  exchanged  6315  green  tickets  for 
food-tickets,  procured  regular  work  for  231  persons,  and  assisted 
327  with  temporary  work  and  169  with  money. 

The  Union  of  the  VI  arrondissement,  established  in  a  vast  build- 
ing in  the  St.  Germain  market,  issues  work-tickets  of  10  centimes 


GROSSETESTE-THIERRY.  2I3 

without  limiting  the  time  of  stay  ;  and  the  total  is  collected  only  after 
they  have  been  worked  out.  Besides  the  assessment  of  the  members, 
it  has  received  two  grants — one  of  10,000  francs  from  the  Mutual 
Pools,  and  the  other  of  2000  francs  from  the  city.  The  average 
number  present  in  the  workshops  is  30,  who  pick  tow,  prepare 
pumice-stone,  or  pick  old  corsets  to  pieces ;  they  remain  on  an 
average  12  days.  They  receive  no  money,  but  tickets  for  food  and 
lodging  are  given  them.  By  an  agreement  between  the  Union  and 
a  neighboring  restaurant-keeper  they  can  get  two  meals  and  a  good 
room  for  1.70  francs. 

This  work,  which  meets  with  much  sympathy,  has  produced  a  very 
sensible  diminution  of  mendicity  in  the  arrondissement.  On  March 
31,  1893  (the  Union  was  founded  in  March,  1892),  it  had  found  situ- 
ations for,  entertained,  helped  or  sent  back  to  the  country  758  per- 
sons, of  whom  335  were  directly  placed  b}^  the  Union,  25  aided 
through  their  families,  124  returned  to  the  provinces,  26  cared  for  in 
the  house,  and  18  sent  away  for  various  causes ;  133  found  situations 
for  themselves,  and  97  left  without  any  reason  given.  Say  45  per 
cent,  were  placed  by  the  Union,  and  65  percent,  if  we  add  those  who 
were  returned  to  the  provinces  and  those  cared  for  in  the  house.  The 
Relief  Union  and  the  free  municipal  bureau  render  signal  service  to 
the  VI  arrondissement. 

IV. 

The  prov'inces  have  largely  shared  in  the  movement  of  private 
beneficence  which  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  relief  unions. 
Marseilles,  Lyons,  Besancon,  Havre,  Nismes,  Rouen,  Melun  and 
other  cities  have  similar  institutions,  with  work  as  the  basis  of  relief; 
these  also  find  situations  for  those  whom  they  assist.  Two  of  them 
may  be  considered  types  of  rational  assistance. 

I.  Assistance  by  work  in  Marseilles. — On  the  23d  of  February, 
1891,  there  was  established  at  Marseilles,  under  the  title  of  "Assist- 
ance par  le  Travail,"  a  work  which,  thanks  to  the  energy  of  its 
founder,  M.  E.  Rosbaud,  and  the  devotion  of  his  fellow-laborers,  made 
rapid  progress.  His  aim  was  not  only  to  procure  temporary  work 
for  the  unemployed  which  would  give  them  the  necessaries  of  life, 
but  to  seek  out  the  worthy  poor  and  to  unmask  imposture ;  to  bring 
the  benevolent  and  the  wretched  together ;  to  find  regular  work  for 
the  unemployed  ;  to  give  immediate  help  in  urgent  cases  ;  to  make 
loans  upon  honor;  to  give  free  advice  ;  to  protect  children  in  phys- 
ical or  moral  danger,  and  to  protect  discharged  convicts. 


214  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

The  results  of  two  years'  work  are  considerable,  but  the  limits  of 
this  paper  will  permit  only  the  report  of  the  section  on  relief  by 
work.  February  27,  1891,  an  account  of  4000  francs,  allowed  by 
the  savings  bank,  formed  its  first  capital.  Subscriptions  were  fixed 
at  5  francs;  and  on  December  31  of  the  same  year,  thanks  to  the 
donations  of  private  individuals,  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  and 
of  anonymous  benefactors,  the  institution  showed  nearly  65,000 
francs  received  and  50,000  expended.  A  certain  number  of  tickets, 
each  of  the  value  of  25  centimes  for  one  hour's  work,  are  given  to 
the  patrons  in  the  form  of  a  coupon-book.  One  of  these  tickets 
detached  from  the  book  is  given  to  the  applicant,  who  goes  to  the 
agency,  whence  he  is  sent,  according  to  his  ability,  to  the  work-yard, 
or  the  addressing  office,  or  if  the  applicant  is  a  woman,  she  is  set  to 
packing  or  sewing.  The  applicant  gets  very  little  remuneration, 
essentially  temporary  and  assuring  him  a  bare  living,  in  order  to 
excite  him  to  an  effort  to  find  regular  occupation. 

Under  these  conditions,  2545  persons  presented  themselves  at  the 
institution  26,478  times  in  1892,  and  worked  out  60,601  twenty- 
five  centimes  tickets,  of  which  the  supporters  gave  47,099  against 
6235  from  other  sources,  such  as  the  bureatc  de  bienfaisance,  savings- 
bank  and  deaconates.  Besides  this,  7267  extra  tickets  w^ere  giveri' 
out  and  paid  for  in  work  by  bearers  of  single  tickets  who  were  desir- 
ous of  obtaining  more  work  to  supplement  the  meagre  wage  of  25 
centimes.  Of  the  2545,  1948  men  and  335  women  were  helped  at 
the  wood-yard  and  262  men  at  the  addressing  ofifice.  These  results 
show  the  interest  which  the  people  of  Marseilles  take  in  this  work. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  most  of  those  assisted. in  the  wodd-yardi 
bring  in  a  return  of  only  9  centimes  for  a  ticket  of  25  centimes;  that 
is  to  say,  the  object  of  the  institution  is  to  offer  at  all  times,  through 
the  payment  for  the  work  by  its  supporters,  temporary  work  to  the 
unemployed. 

The  addressing  office  received  262  persons,  mostly  unemployed 
clerks,  who  did  2868  days'  or  9010  hours'  work.  Their  writing 
brought  in  1407.20  francs,  which  was  entirely  absorbed  by  the 
expenses.  157  women,  present  5876.95  times,  did  work  correspond- 
ing to  1533.20  francs  wages. 

No  assisted  person  can  remain  more  than  four  hours  a  day  in  the 
shops  of  the  society,  and  if  he  shows  a  disposition  to  remain  longer, 
he  is  temporarily  excluded.  The  workman  receives  a  book  which 
indicates  the  number  of  days  present  and  serves  as  a  recommenda- 


GROSSETESTE-THIERRY.  215 

tion  and  protection  ;  it  also  insures  a  reserved  place  in  the  lodging- 
house  (^Hospitalite  de  Niiif).  Finally,  these  tickets  when  used  are 
returned  to  the  benefactors,  who  can  verify  their  use  and  pay  their 
value  to  the  treasurer  of  the  work. 

2.  The  work  at  Lyons. — This  work,  established  in  i8go,  permits  a 
prolonged  stay  with  remuneration  in  kind  and  in  work-tickets  of 
1.50  francs,  which  represents  the  first  day's  stay.  Though  the 
system  is  diametrically  opposed  to  that  of  Marseilles,  the  results  are 
no  less  important.  Experience  has  demonstrated  to  the  founders  of 
the  Temporary  Home  that  the  more  prolonged  the  work  is  the 
more  favorable  is  the  result  in  all  respects,  and  they  have  never 
hesitated  to  keep  beyond  the  regulation  time  any  whose  earnest 
work  might  stimulate  the  zeal  of  their  companions. 

The  work-ticket  of  1.50  francs  permits  a  person  to  remain  a  week 
at  least  in  the  workshop,  where  he  receives  three  meals  a  day  and 
his  lodging ;  he  is  obliged  to  make  50  viargotins  in  an  afternoon, 
and  he  is  allowed  a  premium  (one  centime)  for  every  one  over  this 
number,  which  he  receives  at  the  end  of  his  stay.  Under  these  con- 
ditions the  work  has  been  able  almost  to  balance  its  budget  from  its 
own  resources,  and  in  1892  to  take  care  of  890  men  who  remained 
6974  days,  making  an  average  of  nearly  8  days.  These  results  are 
excellent,  when  it  is  considered  that  they  have  been  obtained  with 
absolutely  inadequate  facilities. 

The  distributing  committee  of  the  Mutual  Pools,  wishing  to  recog- 
nize the  effort  and  the  sustained  devotion  of  the  promoters  of  this 
work,  has  allowed  them  the  sum  of  40,000  francs  for  the  purchase  of 
property,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Lyonnaise  foundation  will 
in  a  short  time  realize  the  dream  of  its  sympathetic  president: 

"Mendicity  is  forbidden  here,  but  we  receive  with  cordial  sympathy  and 
profound  joy  every  one  who  wishes  to  regain  his  manhood,  to  be  regenerated, 
to  be  saved  by  work." 

V. 

The  French  conception  of  relief  by  work  presents  certain  peculi- 
arities which  reveal  its  spontaneous  origin.  A  few  citizens,  in  places 
widely  separated,  and  without  any  appeal  to  the  public  or  to  the 
government,  and  often  with  very  insufficient  funds,  established  insti- 
tutions having  for  their  foundation  the  temporary  occupation  of 
the  unemployed,  which  is  freely  offei-ed  and  freely  accepted.  No 
common    rules   govern   their  action.     In   one   the   assisted   person 


2l6  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

receives  payment  in  money,  in  another  in  food,  and  in  a  third  wholly 
in  lodging.  At  Marseilles,  his  stay  in  the  workshop  is  limited  to 
four  hours  a  day  ;  at  Lyons,  he  may  remain  a  week,  or  longer,  if  he 
gives  evidence  of  energy  and  good  intentions ;  at  Paris,  some  insti- 
tutions take  care  of  him  fourteen  days,  others  twenty  ;  and  wherever 
these  unions  are  in  operation  they  struggle  successfully  against  pro- 
fessional beggary.  Public  charity  seconds  their  efforts  by  active 
co-operation,  by  subsidies,  and  by  credits  allowed  by  the  bureaus  of 
charity.  Hardly  had  they  been  organized  when  unhoped-for  results 
were  obtained ;  because  it  is  recognized  that  the  change  from  indis- 
criminate individual  charity  to  a  form  of  relief  which  is  paid  for  in 
work,  and  the  union  of  private  initiative  with  public  relief,  with  a  view 
to  reviving  the  energy  of  the  able-bodied  poor,  raise  in  an  agricul- 
tural country  like  France  a  much  more  rational  obstacle  to  the 
revival  of  vagrancy  and  mendicity  than  increased  severity  of  the 
repressive  system. 

When  the  public  authorities,  completing  the  work  already  begun, 
shall  endow  the  country  districts  with  shelters  of  a  preventive  char- 
acter which  will  excite  emulation,  such  as  the  large  centres  now 
have,  the  city  will  no  longer  absorb  the  population  of  the  country; 
the  unemployed,  who  first  become  beggars  and  then  dangerous 
criminals,  will  furnish  agriculture  with  the  hands  it  now  lacks,  and 
will  co-operate  in  national  saving,  instead  of  imposing  taxes  which 
are  as  burdensome  as  they  are  useless. 


THE  AUSTRIAN  POOR  LAW  SYSTEM. 

EDITH    SELLERS. 

The  Austrian  poor  law  system  differs  widely  from  that  in  force  in 
any  other  country.  While  elsewhere  poverty  is  regarded  officially 
as  a  crime  and  dealt  with  accordingly,  in  the  Eastern  Empire  it  is 
held  to  be  merely  a  misfortune.  In  the  eyes  of  Western  legislators, 
the  destitute,  whether  little  children,  strong  men,  or  infirm  old 
people,  are  all  on  the  same  level.  By  their  laws,  the  same  treat- 
ment is  meted  out,  in  the  hour  of  need,  to  sturdy  beggars  and  loafing 
vagabonds,  as  to  industrious  men  and  women  whose  life  has  been 
one  long  fierce  struggle  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.     Austrian 


SELLERS.  217 

Statesmen,  however,  hold  different  views  both  as  to  expediency  and 
hurfianity.  They  classify  their  poor  most  carefully,  for  they  main- 
tain, and  with  some  show  of  reason,  that  it  would  be  just  as  absurd 
to  club  together  all  criminals — libellers,  thieves  and  dynamiters — 
as  all  paupers.  They  even  discriminate  in  the  use  of  the  term, 
reserving  it  exclusively  for  able-bodied  men  and  women.  Through- 
out the  empire,  the  young  who  have  no  relatives  to  support  them 
are  the  adopted  children  of  the  state;  the  aged  destitute  are  its 
worn-out  industrial  pensioners ;  and  the  whole  population  would  be 
horrified  at  the  thought  of  treating  as  paupers  the  one  class  or  the 
other. 

The  first  Austrian  poor  law  was  drawn  up  by  the  Emperor 
Joseph  II.,  and  is  strongly  imbued  with  the  personal  characteristics  of 
its  author.  It  came  into  force  in  the  year  1781  and  is  the  basis  of  all 
later  legislation  on  the  subject.  Its  fundamental  principle  is  that  the 
responsibility  for  the  relief  of  distress  rests  not  on  the  state,  but  on 
the  town  or  commune.  The  imperial  exchequer  is  under  no  obliga- 
tion to  contribute  towards  the  support  of  the  poor,  although  it  may, 
and  frequently  does,  make  a  grant  to  some  one  or  more  districts  in 
case  of  special  distress  occurring  there.  Each  town  or  commune  is 
required  to  provide  food  and  shelter  for  such  of  its  inhabitants  as 
are  destitute,  and  to  take  charge  of  idiots,  cripples  and  invalids. 
The  local  authorities  are  exhorted  to  show  special  consideration  for 
the  aged,  and  to  secure  for  them  the  means  of  passing  their  declining 
days  in  comfort.  On  the  other  hand  they  are  exhorted  to  deal 
sternly  with  the  able-bodied,  and  to  refuse  all  help  to  those  who, 
having  the  strength  to  work,  are  lacking  in  the  will.  A  marked"^ 
feature  of  this  first  poor  law  is  the  importance  of  the  role  it  pre- 
scribes for  the  clergy.  The  Emperor  Joseph,  holding  that  the  very 
raison  d'etre  of  the  church  is  to  relieve  distress,  placed  the  adminis- 
tration of  his  law  in  the  hands  of  the  priests.  He  insisted  that  they 
should  become  guardians  of  the  poor  in  all  the  meanings  of  the  term. 
This  arrangement  did  not  work  satisfactorily.  In  many  districts 
these  clerical  guardians  proved  themselves  at  once  negligent  and 
corrupt,  with  the  result  that  it  soon  became  necessary  to  replace 
them  in  their  office  by  laymen.  From  time  to  time  other  alterations 
in  this  law  were  made  by  the  provincial  assemblies,  with  a  view  to 
adapting  it  to  their  special  local  requirements,  so  that  the  old  impe- 
rial measure  has  undergone  many  transformations,  and  to-day 
almost  every  province  and  large  town  has  a  relief  system  of  its  own. 


2l8  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

All  these  systems,  however,  are  founded  on  the  same  principle  and 
are  characterized  by  the  same  spirit.  The  one  in  force  in  Vienna, 
therefore,  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  rest. 

In  Vienna,  the  responsibility  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  is  vested  in 
the  Armendepariment.  This  department  administers  the  municipal 
charities,  manages  the  public  benevolent  institutions,  and  decides 
all  questions  relating  to  the  relief  of  the  poor  of  the  city  as  a  whole. 
It  consists  of  537  guardians  of  the  poor  ;  233  Waisenvater  (fathers 
of  orphans)  ;  54  Waisenmiitier  (mothers  of  orphans),  and  a  certain 
number  of  paid  officials.  The  guardians  are  elected  by  the  rate- 
payers ;  the  Waisenvater  and  Waisenmiitter  are  appointed  by  the 
burgomaster.  In  addition  to  this  central  authority,  each  of  the  nine- 
teen districts  into  which  Vienna  is  divided  has  a  board  of  guardians 
of  its  own.  The  members  of  these  boards  are  elected  by  the  rate- 
payers of  their  respective  districts,  to  whom  they  are  responsible  for 
the  administration  of  the  relief  granted  in  these  districts. 

The  recipients  of  relief  are  divided  into  three  classes,  viz.  children 
under  sixteen,  able-bodied  men  and  women,  and  the  aged  and 
infirm.  Vienna  boasts,  and  not  without  reason,  that  it  takes  better 
care  of  its  destitute  children  than  any  other  city  in  the  world.  All 
children,  whether  orphans  or  not,  whose  relatives  are  unable  to 
provide  for  them  are  adopted  by  the  city.  They  are  never  allowed 
to  enter  a  workhouse  or  any  place  where  they  would  be  brought  in 
contact  with  paupers,  and  the  greatest  care  is  taken  to  prevent  any 
stigma  being  attached  to  them  on  account  of  their  friendless  condition. 
If  under  ten,  they  are  generally  boarded-out  with  well-to-do  peasants, 
who  must  undertake  to  care  for  them  as  if  they  were  their  own  sons 
and  daughters.  They  attend  the  village  school,  where  they  mix 
with  their  companions  upon  terms  of  perfect  equality ;  and  thus  grow 
up  without  ever  experiencing  that  parish  feeling  which  is  often  so 
painful  a  feature  of  the  lot  of  such  children  in  other  countries.  Each 
one  of  them,  if  a  boy,  is  under  the  special  care  of  a  Waisenvater ;  if 
a  girl,  of  a  Waisenvitdier.  These  official  fathers  and  mothers  are 
held  responsible  by  their  fellow-citizens  for  the  welfare  of  their 
charges.  They  must  visit  them  regularly,  see  that  they  are  properly 
fed  and  clothed,  that  they  are  treated  kindly  by  their  foster-parents, 
and  that  they  are  being  trained  in  such  a  manner  as  to  fit  them  to 
make  their  own  way  in  the  world.  As  no  one  would  accept  the 
office  who  was  not  fond  of  children,  a  warm  feeling  often  springs  up 
between  these  guardians  and  their  proteges,  to  the  great  advantage 


I 


SELLERS. 


219 


of  the  latter,  who  thus  start  life  with  a  friend  at  their  back  to  whom 
they  can  turn  when  difficulties  arise.  When  the  children  are  old 
enough  to  benefit  by  more  careful  teaching  and  supervision  than 
can  be  secured  for  them  whilst  boarded-out,  they  are  either  placed  in 
orphanages  or  sent  to  training-schools,  where  they  are  fitted  for  the 
calling  for  which  they  show  most  natural  aptitude.  Every  precaution 
is  taken  to  prevent  their  going  to  swell  the  ranks  of  unskilled  labor. 
The  boys  are  carefully  trained  in  some  well-paid  handicraft — car- 
pentering, bricklaying,  shoemaking,  etc. — whilst  the  girls  are  taught 
to  cook,  wash,  clean,  sew,  to  perform  in  fact  all  the  duties  of  house- 
wives. If  any  of  them  show  signs  of  special  talent  they  are  given  an 
opportunity  to  cultivate  it ;  for  attached  to  the  public  schools  are 
scholarships  for  which  only  pauper  children  may  compete.  Even 
the  University  throws  open  to  them  g-ra^isaW  its  lectures  and  exami- 
nations— a  noteworthy  fact  considering  the  exclusive  spirit  which 
generally  characterizes  such  institutions. 

Vienna  has  under  its  care  at  the  present  time  some  7000  children, 
of  whom  one-third,  roughly  speaking,  are  in  schools  and  orphanages, 
while  the  rest  are  boarded-out.  The  average  cost  per  head  in  an 
orphanage  is  79.96  kreuzer  a  day.  This  is  certainly  a  liberal  allow- 
ance for  a  child — more  than  half  as  much  again  as  that  granted  for  a 
man;  but  the  money  is  well  spent,  for  the  adopted  children  of  the 
city  turn  out  as  a  rule  useful  men  and  women,  self-supporting,  law- 
abiding,  and  capable  of  doing  good  service  in  the  world. 

For  the  relief  of  the  able-bodied  a  sort  of  modified  Elberfeld 
system  prevails  in  Vienna.  Each  district  guardian  has  under  his 
care  some  twenty  families  with  whose  character,  habits  and  circum- 
stances he  is  expected  to  be  personally  acquainted.  Unfortunately, 
however,  like  other  honorary  officials,  he  sometimes  neglects  his  duty 
in  this  respect.  He  has  at  his  disposal  a  small  sum  of  money  for  the 
relief  of  cases  of  temporary  distress.  His  special  duty,  however,  is 
not  so  much  to  deal  with  distress  himself  as  to  supply  the  information 
necessary  for  enabling  the  Arviendeparimeni  to  deal  with  it  effect- 
ually. He,  therefore,  unless  the  circumstances  of  the  case  be 
exceptional,  passes  on  all  applications  for  help  to  the  officials  of  the 
central  department  in  charge  of  the  public  institutions  for  paupers. 
These  institutions  are  arranged  on  a  sort  of  descending  scale  of 
comfort.  There  are  Asyls  for  those  who  are  anxious  to  work  but 
have  no  work  to  do;  a  workhouse  for  those  who  will  work  if  they 
must,  but  would  rather  play;  and  a  Zwangarbeiihavs  (forced  labor 


220  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

colony)  for  those  who  can  only  be  driven  to  work  by  threats  and 
blows.  By  thus  keeping  the  three  classes  distinct,  the  authorities 
are  able  to  deal  out  to  each  one  of  them  the  precise  treatment  it 
merits. 

An  Asy/  is  a  municipal  boarding-house  to  which  a  workman  who, 
owing  to  loss  of  employment  or  some  other  misfortune,  is  in  a  state 
of  destitution,  may  claim  admittance.  There  he  is  provided,  free  of 
charge,  with  a  supper,  bath,  bed  and  breakfast  every  day  for  a 
limited  time,  upon  condition  that,  during  that  time,  he  makes  every 
possible  effort  to  obtain  employment.  The  Asj/l  officials  are  in 
constant  communication  with  the  great  employers  of  labor,  and  have 
a  labor-bureau  of  their  own.  Thus  they  know  to  a  nicety  where 
work  is  to  be  found,  and  are  able  to  save  the  unemployed  from  many 
a  weary  tramp.  So  long  as  a  man  is  honestly  doing  his  best  to 
become  self-supporting  they  give  him  every  help ;  but  they  keep  a 
sharp  watch  on  his  proceedings,  and  if  he  shows  signs  of  a  taste  for 
loafing  they  treat  him  with  scant  toleration.  In  no  circumstances  is 
he  allowed  to  return  to  the  Asyl  too  often  or  to  stay  there  too  long. 
Three  days  is  the  average  length  of  a  visit.  At  the  end  of  that  time, 
unless  he  has  either  found  work  or  can  prove  that  he  is  on  the  way 
to  do  so,  he  must  leave  the  Asyl.  Another  refuge,  however,  is  open 
to  him  ;  he  may  go  to  the  workhouse. 

In  Austria  a  workhouse  is  something  entirely  different  from  the 
institution  which  bears  that  name  in  America.  Vienna  with  its  popu- 
lation of  1,500,000  has  only  one  workhouse,  and  of  this  the  number 
of  inmates  is  rarely  more  than  170.  Yet  it  is  by  no  means  an 
unpleasant  abode.  The  food  is  good,  the  rooms  are  comfortable, 
and  there  is  a  decided  air  of  life  and  gaiety  about  the  place.  The 
inmates  are  required  to  do  a  certain  amount  of  work,  to  keep  regu- 
lar hours,  and  to  be  peaceable  and  orderly  in  their  behavior.  So 
long  as  they  conform  to  these  rules  they  enjoy  considerable  liberty, 
for  the  officials  never  interfere  unnecessarily  with  their  proceedings. 
On  Sundays  andy^/<?  days  they  do  no  work  at  all,  and  once  a  week 
they  are  free  the  whole  day  to  go  out  in  search  of  employment. 
Thus,  in  certain  circumstances,  a  sojourn  in  the  workhouse  may  be 
almost  enjoyable;  it  can,  however,  never  be  prolonged.  The  work- 
house, like  the  Asyis,  is  designed  to  tide  over  temporary  distress, 
and  the  authorities  are  always  on  the  alert  to  prevent  its  inmates 
regarding  it  as  a  fixed  residence.  They  may  stay  there  for  a  few 
weeks,  for  months  even,  if  it  be  a  time  of  industrial  depression  ;   but 


SELLERS.  221 

sooner  or  later,  unless  they  find  work  for  themselves  outside,  they 
will  be  sent  to  the  Zzvangarheithaus. 

Loafers,  vagrants,  and  all  those  who  wish  to  live  on  the  labor  of  their 
fellows  have  a  wholesome  dread  of  a  visit  to  the  Viennese  Zwang- 
arbeithaics.  And  well  they  may,  for  it  is  an  eminently  unpleasant 
experience.  In  the  Zwangarbeithaus  the  strictest  prison  discipline 
is  maintained,  and  all  who  are  there  must  earn  their  rations  before 
they  eat  them.  This  is  as  the  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  Nor 
can  the  inmates  leave  at  will ;  the  length  of  their  stay  depends  on 
their  conduct,  not  on  their  wishes.  The  treatment  to  which  paupers 
are  subjected  in  this  institution  is  undoubtedly  harsh,  but  few  will 
be  inclined  on  that  account  to  condemn  it.  For  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  decently  industrious  men  and  women  are  not  sent  there; 
it  is  set  aside  entirely  for  those  whom  gentler  means  have  failed  to 
redeem.  And  certainly  public  opinion,  especially  among  the  work- 
ing classes,  is  decidedly  on  the  side  of  the  authorities  in  putting  down, 
with  a  firm  hand,  professional  loafing.  No  one  thinks  the  worse  of 
a  comrade  for  going  to  an  Asyl ;  he  may  even  pass  a  few  weeks  in 
the  workhouse  without  losing  caste  ;  but  if  he  has  once  crossed  the 
threshold  of  the  Zwangarbeithaus  there  is  a  mark  against  his  name 
for  ever. 

The  Viennese  poor  law  regulations  with  regard  to  the  aged  and 
infirm  are  essentially  humane  in  character.  Not  only  are  the  old 
people  well  fed,  well  tended  and  well  clothed,  but  their  feelings, 
tastes  and  prejudices  are  careiully  consulted.  It  would  be  difficult 
for  Americans  to  form  any  idea  of  the  respectful  consideration  with 
which  the  aged  poor  are  treated  in  Austria.  The  unusual  privileges 
they  enjoy  result,  perhaps,  in  some  measure  at  least,  from  the  unsatis- 
factory financial  conditions  of  the  country.  Austrian  legislators  have 
always  been  compelled  to  recognize  the  fact  that,  for  a  certain  per- 
centage of  the  population,  pauperism  is  as  inevitable  as  the  grave. 
No  amount  of  economy  or  self-denial  will  enable  peasants  whose 
average  earnings  are  at  most  three  florins  a  week,  or  town  laborers 
who  gain  perhaps  five  or  six,  to  lay  by  a  provision  against  old  age. 
The  relief  such  people  receive  when  their  strength  is  spent  can,  there- 
fore, carry  with  it  no  disgrace.  More  than  a  hundred  years  ago  the 
Emperor  Joseph  proclaimed  the  principle  around  which  the  battle 
to-day  is  raging  so  fiercely.  "  Old  age  relief  is  a  right,  not  a  charity," 
he  maintained.  By  his  law  any  person  who  had  completed  his  six- 
tieth year,  and  was  without  means  of  support,  might  claim   from  his 


222  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

commune  an  annuity  equal  in  amount  to  one-third  of  the  average 
yearly  wages  he  had  received.  The  annuity  was  to  be  regarded  in 
precisely  the  same  light  as  a  soldier's  pension,  namely,  as  the  reward 
of  past  services.  Since  that  time  the  amount  of  a  superannuation 
pension  has  often  been  changed  and  is  now  miserably  small;  still  the 
right  of  the  old  and  feeble  to  be  supported  by  the  community  has 
never  been  questioned. 

The  city  of  Vienna  is  now  supporting  partially  or  entirely  about 
21,000  persons  who  are  aged  or  infirm.  To  some  16,000  of  them  it 
grants  pensions  of  from  two  to  six  florins  a  month,  and  also  in  many 
cases  rooms,  firing  and  lights.  For  the  rest  it  provides  homes  in 
charitable  institutions  of  one  sort  or  another.  Of  these  the  chief  are 
■the  Artneninstitute  and  the  Versorgungsh'djiser.  Any  native  of 
Vienna,  if  he  be  above  sixty  years  of  age,  of  good  character,  and 
without  means  of  support,  may  claim  admittance  to  a  Versorguiigs- 
haiis.  If  there  be  no  vacant  room  at  the  time,  the  authorities  must 
grant  him  a  pension,  or  admit  him  to  2Si  Armeninstituie  until  a  place 
can  be  found  for  him  in  a  Versorgungshaus.  Both  these  institutions 
are  supported  by  the  city.  The  former  are  simply  poorhouses  which 
are  reserved  for  the  aged  and  infirm  ;  paupers,  that  is  the  able-bodied 
destitute,  being  rigidly  excluded.  They  correspond  so  far  as  their 
aim  is  concerned  to  state-provided  almshouses  in  Amerka,  but  are 
arranged  with  much  more  regard  for  the  comfort  of  the  inmates. 
Versorgitngshauser  are  an  institution  peculiar  to  Austria  and  one  of 
which  the  nation  is  justly  proud.  Vienna  owns  five,  one  in  the  city 
itself  and  four  in  the  suburbs.  They  are  fine  large  buildings  stand- 
ing in  pleasant  gardens,  and  they  are  regarded  by  the  whole  com- 
munity as  the  special  property  of  the  aged  poor. 

There  is  no  pleasanter  spot  in  all  Vienna  than  a  Versorgungshaus, 
the  inhabitants  are  so  delightfully  contented  and  happy.  They  feel 
there,  as  they  say,  in  their  own  home,  in  the  old  folks'  home,  and 
they  assume  quite  an  air  of  proprietorship  as  they  go  about  the 
place.  Their  rooms  are  most  cosy  little  apartments,  with  bright 
colored  prints  on  the  wall  and  plants  on  the  window-sill.  All  sorts 
of  old  family  relics,  too,  are  dotted  about,  for  these  lucky  old  people 
are  not  required  (as  they  would  be  if  they  lived  elsewhere)  to  part 
with  their  most  cherished  possessions  when  they  accept  a  home  from 
the  stale.  A  Versorgimgshaus  is  divided  into  two  parts,  the  men 
living  on  one  side  and  the  women  on  the  other.  As,  however,  the 
hall,  the  dining-room,  the  corridors  and  the  gardens   are  equally 


SELLERS.  223 

open  to  the  two,  husbands  and  wives,  if  they  wish  it,  can  pass  the 
whole  day  together.  They  may  also  go  out  for  walks  together  every 
afternoon,  and  may,  if  they  choose,  once  a  week  spend  the  whole 
day  with  their  friends.  Their  friends,  too,  are  encouraged  to  pay 
them  visits,  and  on  a  fine  afternoon  there  is  often  quite  a  lively 
assembly  in  the  gardens.  The  women  are  expected  to  help  to  keep 
the  house  neat,  and  the  men  to  give  a  hand  in  the  garden  from  time 
to  time.  Beyond  that  they  are  free  to  employ  their  leisure  as  they 
choose ;  so  long  as  they  are  orderly  in  their  ways  and  keep  regular 
hours,  the  officials  never  interfere  with  them.  Far  from  encroaching 
on  their  liberty,  they  seem  anxious  so  far  as  possible  to  humor  their 
prejudices.  Of  this  their  treatment  of  the  clothes  difficulty  is  a  proof. 
The  authorities  provide  warm  comfortable  clothing  of  an  uniform 
pattern  for  all  the  inmates,  but  if  some  of  them  prefer  (as  many  do) 
wearing  their  own  old  tattered  garments,  they  are  free  to  do  so,  at 
least  so  long  as  they  can  keep  them  clean. 

In  some  of  the  Versorgzaigshmiser  ihe  commissariat  arrangements 
are  on  the  restaurant  principle.  Attached  to  the  building  is  a 
restaurant,  managed  by  a  private  company,  but  under  the  super- 
vision oi  i\\Q  Arineiideparhne^it  oihc\3.\s  and  the  guardians.  Here 
the  old  people,  excepting  in  case  of  illness,  have  their  meals.  They 
are  each  given  38  kreuzer  a  day  for  food,  and  this  they  may  spend 
as  they  choose,  although  the  guardians  reserve  the  right  of  with- 
drawing this  privilege  if  it  be  abused.  The  food  supplied  is  thor- 
oughly good  and  beautifully  cooked,  great  care  being  taken  to 
provide  a  variety  of  dishes  every  day.  A  doctor  and  two  of  the 
guardians  are  always  present  when  the  dinners  are  being  served  out, 
to  insure  the  old  people  receiving  good  value  for  their  money,  both 
in  the  quantity  and  in  the  quality  of  their  food.  These  restaurants 
are  marvels  of  good  management,  for,  although  they  supply  their 
guests  with  as  much  wholesome  appetizing  food  as  they  can  eat,  at  a 
maximum  charge  of  39  kreuzer  per  head  a  day,  they  are  self-sup- 
porting. 

The  average  cost  of  the  inmates  of  the  Versorgtingshauser  is  only 
52,87  kreuzer  a  day.  This  is  the  cost  of  maintenance  only,  and  does 
not  include  any  allowance  for  interest  on  the  capital  outlay  on  the 
buildings.  In  spite  of  this,  considering  the  high  standard  of  life 
maintained,  they  must  certainly  be  classed  among  the  most  econom- 
ically managed  institutions  in  the  world. 

The  public  hospitals  in  Vienna  are  all  under  state  supervision. 


224  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

Any  patient  who  presents  himself  at  one  of  these  hospitals  is  at  once 
admitted,  provided  his  condition  be  such  as  to  necessitate  medical  or 
surgical  treatment.  No  questions  are  asked  as  to  his  status  or  means 
until  he  is  cured  or  pronounced  incurable;  then  the  hospital  author- 
ities claim  a  fixed  amount  for  every  day  he  has  been  under  their 
care.  This  he  must  pay  unless  he  can  prove  that  neither  he  nor  any 
of  his  responsible  relations  have  the  money  to  do  so.  In  that  case 
the  Arine7idepart77ient  defrays  the  cost  of  his  treatment.  If,  how- 
ever, he  be  not  a  native  of  the  city,  the  commune  to  which  he  belongs 
must  refund  the  money  to  the  department. 

It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  exact  cost  to  the  municipality  of 
the  relief  of  the  poor  of  Vienna.  The  money  is  not  raised  by  means 
of  any  one  rate,  but  is  largely  derived  from  sources  which  vary  in 
the  amount  they  yield  from  year  to  year.  It  is  not  until  the  fund 
obtained  from  the  old  foundations,  confiscated  church  lands,  lega- 
cies, etc.,  is  exhausted  that  the  rates  are  resorted  to.  Roughly 
speaking,  however,  exclusive  of  the  hospitals  and  orphanages,  the 
city  spends  six  and  one-half  million  florins  annually  on  its  poor.  Of 
this  sum  only  one  million,  in  an  average  year,  falls  on  the  rates. 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  RELIEF  IN  AUSTRIA. 

DR.  MENGER,  VIENNA. 
[translation.] 

As  in  other  countries,  so  preeminently  in  Austria,  there  are  two 
kinds  of  poverty  to  be  considered,  namely,  poverty  which  is  due  to 
the  inability  of  the  person  himself  to  provide  the  necessaries  of  life, 
and  that  which  is  due  to  the  inability  of  those  whose  duty  it  is  to 
support  him. 

Poverty  in  the  first  form  is  the  result  of  inability  to  procure  by 
one's  own  means  the  indispensable  necessaries  of  life.  It  befalls  indi- 
viduals or  families  through  sickness,  death  of  the  breadwinner,  the 
consequent  destitution  of  those  left  behind,  other  misfortunes,  thrift- 
lessness  and  the  like.  In  many  parts  of  Austria  the  collective  wealth 
as  compared  with  the  population  is  not  large,  its  general  distribution 
being  often  very  unequal.     This,  together  with  the  heavy  demands 


MENGER.  225 

made  by  the  very  high  and  often  unequally  imposed  state  taxes  and 
duties,  direct  and  indirect,  and  the  fact  that  states,  districts  and  com- 
munes are  all  anxiously  striving  rapidly  to  make  amends  for  the 
unfortunate  lack  of  development  in  the  first  half  of  this  century, 
multiply  in  many  regions  the  number  of  poor  beyond  what  would 
otherwise  be  the  case.  The  very  grave  political  problems  which 
Austria- Hungary  has  had  to  face  because  of  wars  and  preparations 
for  wars  against  the  enemies  of  European  civilization  (formerly 
against  Turkey,  now  against  Russia,  with  both  of  which  powers 
France  joined  hands),  have  not  only  called  forth  numerous  difficul- 
ties of  internal  policy,  but  have  affected  in  many  unfortunate  ways 
both  the  state  finances  and  the  accumulation  of  capital,  the  distri- 
bution of  public  wealth  and  the  development  of  business  possibili- 
ties. The  spirit  of  enterprise  is  comparatively  little  developed  in 
Austria.  The  problems  of  poverty  in  Austria  are,  therefore,  for 
reasons  of  universal  experience,  far  more  difficult  of  solution  than 
those  of  civilized  countries  with  larger  and  better  distributed  public 
wealth,  greater  capital  and  business  possibilities,  and,  above  all,  a 
greater  spirit  of  enterprise  in  the  domain  of  economics,  such  as 
France,  North  America,  and  even  Germany. 

In  addition  to  the  general  causes  of  pauperism,  which  are  met  with 
everywhere,  but  which  in  Austria,  as  stated  above,  operate  much 
more  powerfully  than  in  many' other  countries,  there  are  certain  far- 
reaching  economic  and  social  phenomena  which  have  brought  whole 
classes,  or  at  least  considerable  portions  of  the  population,  to  an 
exceedingly  distressing  economic  condition. 

Before  industrial  production  made  steam  power,  the  steam  engine 
and  railways  subservient  to  its  use  to  such  an  extent  as  it  does 
now,  much  of  the  manufacturing  in  Austria  was  done  in  the  homes 
of  the  laborers;  this  supplied  the  country  with  a  great  variety  of 
goods,  such  as  textile  fabrics,  many  kinds  of  hardware,  etc.,  and 
there  was  some  manufacturing  for  export.  There  often  resulted 
from  this  state  of  affairs  in  places  which  were  not  very  productive,  as 
in  sterile  mountain  regions,  a  very  dense  population.  Considerable 
portions  of  Galicia,  a  great  part  of  Silesia,  Moravia  and  Bohemia,  some 
districts  in  Lower  Austria,  many  valleys  in  Styria,  Carinthia,  Carniola, 
Vorarlberg  and  the  Tyrol  supported  themselves  by  these  domestic 
industries.  In  the  northern  part  of  the  empire  they  consisted  princi- 
pally in  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  wool,  flax,  and  later  of  cotton  ; 
the  south  was  especially  the  home  of  the  metal  industry.    Even  now 


226  PUBLIC   TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

the  textile  manufacture  of  wool,  flax  and  cotton  is  carried  on  in  the 
northern  states  of  the  empire,  particularly  in  Bohemia,  Moravia  and 
Silesia,  also  in  Lower  Austria;  while  metal-working  prevails  in  the 
southern  and  Alpine  states.  But  the  competition  of  large  factories 
has  overthrown  home  manufacturing  and  the  smaller  producers. 
Of  course  there  might  have  been  such  a  development  in  Austria 
as  in  many  other  countries,  where  the  different  kinds  of  domestic 
manufacture  were  replaced  by  the  large  modern  factory  which  gave 
work  and  bread  to  the  laborers  in  the  smaller  trades,  to  the  modest 
employer  and  employees  engaged  in  manufacture  at  home.  This 
line  of  development  was  hindered  by  the  circumstance  that  in  the 
first  half-century  after  the  establishment  of  the  first  railway  in 
Austria,  hardly  any  lines  except  the  so-called  trunk-lines  were  built, 
whereas  branch  roads  received  but  little  attention.  The  main  lines 
ran  chiefly  through  the  large  valleys  and  plains.  Along  these  lines 
the  great  manufacturing  establishments  settled.  Many  districts 
where  home  manufacturing  flourished  remained  for  decades  without 
railroads.  There  are  still  extensive  and  thickly  populated  regions 
which  have  none. 

To  the  other  causes  of  the  economic  superiority  of  the  large 
manufacturing  enterprises  there  was  added  cheap  and  safe  trans- 
portation by  the  railroads.  The  result  was  that  the  small  manu- 
facturers suffered  the  greatest  losses;  but  competition  could  be 
maintained  only  by  constantly  reducing  wages.  The  distress  of  the 
weavers  has  become  almost  proverbial.  In  many  of  these  districts, 
wages  per  week  amount  to  from  1.70  to  2.00  florins  (about  85  cents 
to  one  dollar).  Only  by  the  completion  of  a  network  of  railways 
with  numerous  branch  roads  can  this  great  evil  be  lessened  to  any 
considerable  extent,  if  indeed  it  is  not  already  too  late. 

A  second  cause  of  the  poverty  to  which  a  large  part  of  the  popu- 
lation of  whole  districts  is  succumbing,  is  the  too  minute  parceling  ot 
land,  without  a  corresponding  development  of  other  business  which 
would  help  the  smaller  holder.  This  happens  in  those  districts  in 
which  this  division  is  not  accompanied  with  increased  activity  in 
agriculture.  The  reason  for  this  is  generally  the  fact  that  in  these 
districts  capital,  education  and  the  spirit  of  enterprise  in  industrial 
pursuits  stand  on  a  low  plane.  Wide-spread  poverty  is  found  also 
in  many  regions  where  a  very  large  portion  of  the  land  is  tied  up  in 
entail,  while  the  proprietors  gladly  buy  up  such  peasant  holdings  as 
are  for  sale.     Similar  phenomena  appear  in  extensive  tracts  of  land 


MENGER.  227 

in  Galicia  and  in  some  parts  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia.  The  rural 
pauperism  in  South  Tyrol  has  its  chief  cause  in  the  diseases  of  its 
vines  and  the  consequent  failure  of  the  crops,  and  in  the  great  fall 
in  the  value  of  silk,  due  to  the  competition  of  China  and  Japan. 

The  far  greater  part  of  the  Jewish  population  of  Galicia  presents  a 
peculiarly  pitiable  form  of  pauperism  in  mass.  Too  early  marriages, 
premature  and  numerous  offspring — phenomena  connected  with  the 
religious  views  of  widely  extended  Jewish  sects— increased  living 
expense  due  to  the  Hebrew  dietary  laws,  the  echoes  of  hard  oppres- 
sion under  which  the  Israelites  have  suffered  for  centuries  even  in 
their  economic  relations,  have  produced  phases  of  poverty  such  as 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  elsewhere.  A  large  part  of  the  Jewish 
population  of  Galicia  does  not  live  from  day  to  day,  but,  as  may  be 
said  without  exaggeration,  from  meal  to  meal.  From  three  to  four 
Jewish  families  often  live  in  one  room.  The  territory  belonging  to 
each  family  is  outlined  with  chalk.  Disease  and  superstition  thrive 
with  extraordinary  luxuriance  under  such  conditions.  Here  also  the 
lack  of  opportunity  for  work,  due  to  lack  of  enterprise  and  the  shy- 
ness of  capital  to  embark  in  industrial  enterprises,  is  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  this  misery  and  its  deplorable  consequences  in  social  and 
economic  relations.  It  is  not  true  that  Galician  Jews  in  general 
abhor  all  physical  labor.  They  engage  in  a  great  many  manual 
trades.  They  serve  even  as  porters  *  in  many  cities.  But  in  many 
parts  of  Galicia  there  is  not  a  sufficient  supply  of  even  moderately 
paying  labor  for  the  Christian  laborer. 

The  relief  of  poverty  in  Austria,  as  elsewhere,  falls  first  upon 
endowed  religious  institutions  and  voluntary  associations,  but  chiefly 
upon  the  communes,  and  to  some  extent  upon  the  states.  The 
Austrian  institutions  for  the  poor  suffered  very  much  from  the  large 
state  bankruptcies  in  the  beginning  of  this  century,  their  capital 
suffering  quite  a  heavy  reduction.  To  this  must  be  added  the  very 
great  rise  in  the  prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  so  that  it  may  be 
said  without  exaggeration  that  the  spirit  of  benevolence  will  have  to 
multiply  the  existing  institutions  greatly,  if  they  are  to  attain  the 
importance  which  they  possessed  toward  the  end  of  the  last  century. 
The  religious  societies — the  Catholic  church  to  the  greatest  extent, 
but  the  Protestant  and  Jewish  congregations  as  well — dispense  charity 

*A11  through  Poland  men  are  employed  as  we  use  horses,  to  deliver  goods 
from  stores,  such  as  sacks  of  flour,  salt,  potatoes,  etc.  It  is  very  hard  work. — 
Translator . 


228  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

on  a  large  scale.  The  fundamental  factor  in  poor  relief  in  Austria 
is,  however,  the  commune.  In  contrast  with  former  legislative 
efforts,  for  instance  that  of  1754,  charity  now  rests  upon  the  follow- 
ing principles:  Every  Austrian  subject,  in  case  of  impoverishment, 
is  entitled  to  receive  the  indispensable  necessaries  of  life  from  that 
commune  in  which  he  has  the  right  of  settlement.  This  right,  how- 
ever, except  in  case  of  a  voluntary  admission  into  a  commune,  or 
an  appointment  to  a  state  office  in  a  specific  place,  is  acquired  only 
by  inheritance  or  marriage.  The  principles  of  the  older  Austrian 
egislation,  which  as  late  as  in  the  imperial  patent  of  1804  allowed 
the  right  of  settlement  to  be  acquired  by  a  four  years'  residence,  con- 
tinued without  certificate  and  permitted  by  the  community,  were 
done  away  with  by  the  law  of  December  3,  1863,  which  regulates  the 
power  of  granting  settlement  and  the  right  of  settlement  itself. 

While  the  Prussian  settlement  laws  which  reached  their  climax  in 
the  institution  of  a  relief-domicile  have  been  recognized  in  all  Ger- 
many, with  the  exception  of  Bavaria  and  Alsace-Lorraine,  the  older 
Austrian  laws,  which  also  contained  a  provision  for  relief-domicile, 
have  been  invalid  since  1863.  Every  citizen  must  have  a  right  of 
settlement  in  some  commune.  The  right  of  settlement  in  a  commune 
gives  a  claim  to  charitable  support.  This  is  obtained  by  birth 
(descent  from  a  domiciled  father,  or,  in  case  of  illegitimacy,  from  a 
domiciled  mother)  ;  by  marriage,  when  the  groom  is  domiciled  ;  by 
admission  into  the  commune;  and  lastly,  by  appointment  to  an  office 
the  headquarters  of  which  are  located  in  the  commune.  These  legal 
regulations  have  produced  a  very  peculiar  state  of  affairs  in  the 
domain  of  charity,  and  from  our  experience  thus  far  we  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  a  very  deplorable  one.  Since  in  the  main  the 
right  of  free  migration  obtains  in  Austria,  and  the  movement  from 
the  open  country  to  the  larger  cities,  from  the  purely  agricultural 
districts  to  the  manufacturing  centres,  is  very  great,  the  ratios 
between  residents  entitled  to  right  of  settlement  and  residents  who 
are  not,  and  between  residents  and  non-residents  entitled  to  the  right, 
are  becoming  every  year  in  many  important  communes  more  and 
more  unfavorable  to  the  former  class  in  both  cases.  The  time  is  not 
far  distant  when  most  of  the  people  entitled  to  settlement  will  live 
away  from  their  places  of  domicile,  and  such  as  do  not  possess  the 
right  of  settlement  in  a  place  will  form  the  majority  of  its  population. 
With  each  generation  this  disproportion  increases,  and  with  it  the 
great  evils  that  follow  in  its  train. 


MENGER.  229 

The  confused  condition  of  the  Austrian  settlement  laws  exercises 
a  most  baneful  influence  over  poor  relief.  Families  whose  heads 
have  worked  in  a  place  for  decades  are  obliged,  when  death  or 
disability  of  the  father  occurs,  to  claim  their  right  of  support  in 
some  distant  community  whose  name  they  often  scarcely  know. 
German  poor  are  removed  to  Slavic  communes,  and  Slavic  poor 
to  German  communes.  The  beneficiary  of  the  poor  law  often  does 
not  know  even  the  language  of  the  commune  in  the  midst  of  which 
he  must  live  and  which  must  care  for  him.  All  the  evils  which 
modern  German  writers  urge  against  a  relief-domicile  do  not  com- 
pare with  the  bad  influence  which  this  principle  of  the  right  of 
settlement,  driven  as  it  has  been  to  the  extreme,  has  exercised  upon 
Austrian  poor  relief. 

These  great  evils  have  made  the  need  of  reform  in  settlement  laws 
in  the  interests  of  Austrian  charity  clear  in  almost  all  of  the  states. 
Some  of  these,  especially  Lower  Austria,  have  passed  reform  laws 
which  as  far  as  possible  minimize  the  defects  in  Austrian  poor  relief. 
Some  branches  of  poor  relief — for  example,  much  of  the  care  of  the 
sick — have  been  assumed  by  the  states  and  districts,  partly  as  a 
result  of  legislation,  partly  as  a  result  of  mere  custom.  The  intro- 
duction of  Naturalverpfie^ungssiationen  has  diminished  vagrancy  to 
some  extent,  as  well  as  the  practice  of  forcibly  moving  the  vagrant  on, 
which  had  in  Austria  degenerated  into  a  lamentable  abuse.  Yet  few 
branches  of  Austrian  legislation  are  so  much  in  need  of  reform  as  the 
laws  concerning  right  of  settlement  in  its  relation  to  poor-relief. 

The  question  of  the  duty  of  a  commune  to  relieve  its  poor  arises, 
of  course,  only  when  there  is  no  person  or  society  whose  duty  it  is  to 
support  the  pauper.  Persons  entitled  to  the  benefits  of  the  poor 
laws,  have,  however,  in  Austria  no  right  of  complaint  against  a  com- 
mune. 


230  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

SKETCH  OF  THE   ORGANIZATION   OF   PUBLIC   POOR 

RELIEF  IN  AUSTRIA. 

DR.  FRIEDERICH  PROBST,  OF  THE  IMPERIAL  CENTRAL  STATISTICAL 

COMMISSION. 

[TRANSLATION.] 

I. — Agencies  of  Public  Poor  Relief. 

The  foundation  of  the  poor  law  of  Austria  is  contained  in  the 
statute  of  December  3,  1S63  {R.  G.  B.  No.  105),  relative  to  the 
regulation  of  settlement.  In  §§  1-22  it  is  enacted  that  settlement 
{Heimathsrechi)  in  a  commune  establishes  a  person's  claim  to  sup- 
port, and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a  commune  in  case  of  poverty  to 
provide  for  the  support  of  paupers  who  have  the  right  of  domicile 
there. 

The  origin  of  the  poor  law  on  which,  as  explained  above,  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  commune  rests,  is  found  far  back  in  the  establish- 
ment by  Emperor  Joseph  II.  of  organized  parish  institutions  for  the 
poor  (^Pfarrarmeninstikde')  in  all  German-Slavonic  countries. 

These  institutions,  carried  on  under  the  guidance  of  the  clergy  and 
with  the  co-operation  of  almoners  (^Arvienvater')  chosen  from  the 
parish,  were  dependent  for  pecuniary  support  on  the  bounty  of  the 
commune.  But  certain  other  legal  means  for  increasing  their  income 
were  also  at  their  disposal,  namely,  the  half  of  the  income  of  dis- 
banded brotherhoods,  the  property  of  dissolved  guilds,  all  capital 
which  had  accumulated  for  the  release  of  poor  Christian  slaves,  all 
fines,  a  percentage  on  public  auction  sales,  and  all  sums  bestowed  upon 
the  poor  by  will,  and  a  third  of  the  intestate  estates  of  secular  priests. 
In  the  year  1789  an  order  was  issued  to  these  parish  institutions  that 
before  dispensing  aid  investigation  should  be  made  as  to  whether 
the  applicant  had  resided  for  ten  years  in  the  given  place;  if  he  had 
not,  no  aid  should  be  given.  Thus  the  principle  that  settlement 
alone  entitled  one  to  a  claim  for  support  was  established,  and  the 
parish  institutions  became  the  agencies  for  conducting  poor  relief  in 
communes. 

Under  the  laws  proclaimed  since  1861  the  enunciation  of  the 
general  principles  for  the  regulation  of  poor  relief  is  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  state  legislatures.  These  bodies  have  legislated  in  two 
directions.     After  the  political  communes  had,  under   the   law    of 


PROBST.  231 

settlement  (^Heimathsgesetz),  been  entrusted  with  the  direct  man- 
agement of  poor  relief,  the  parish  institutions  for  the  poor  were 
entirely  abolished  in  several  states — Lower  Austria,  Upper  Austria, 
Carinthia,  Croatia,  Carniola  and  Silesia.  The  property  which  they 
possessed  at  the  time  was  turned  over  to  the  communes,  and  even 
the  legal  revenues  allotted  for  their  support  were  transferred  to  the 
communes.  In  those  countries  in  which  parish  institutions  were  not 
abolished,  the  communes,  by  virtue  of  the  imperial  law  mentioned 
above,  became  the  agencies  of  public  poor  relief,  and  parish  institu- 
tions for  the  poor  lost  their  official  character. 

In  a  number  of  states — Lower  Austria,  Upper  Austria,  Salzburg, 
Styria,  Carinthia,  Carniola,  Bohemia,  Vorarlberg  and  Dalmatia — 
legislation  went  still  farther  and  by  local  poor  laws  prescribed  certain 
limits  within  which  all  agencies  for  poor  relief  in  a  commune  must 
act.  These  laws,  however,  allowed  great  latitude  to  the  communes 
in  the  matter  of  organizing  their  poor  relief;  for  this,  in  the  last 
analysis,  always  remains  a  matter  of  peculiar  concern  for  the  com- 
mune. So  as  to  poor  relief,  the  local  council  (^Ausschuss)  is  the 
determining  and  supervising  body,  while  the  local  executive  {Ge- 
memdevorstand)  has  the  administrative  and  executive  power. 

In  dispensing  material  relief  to  the  poor  the  communal  council 
has  the  right  to  avail  itself  of  the  services  of  certain  subordinate 
agencies.  It  can  choose  almoners  or  appoint  an  overseer  (^Armen- 
raih) ;  in  fact  it  can  provide  itself  with  the  necessary  subordinates, 
who  act  under  its  control  and  superintendence,  and  for  whose  acts  it 
is  responsible.  It  can,  when  necessary,  regulate  the  sphere  of 
activity  of  almoners  and  overseer  by  general  instructions  and  direc- 
tions, and,  within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the  stale  laws,  make  its 
own  poor  laws. 

According  to  the  statute  of  February  26,  1876  (Z,.  G.  B.  No.  13), 
Dalmatia  possesses  its  own  charitable  commissions  {commissioni  di 
piiblice  benejiceyizd),  independent  of  the  communes,  on  which 
devolves  the  administration  of  poor  funds  and  the  direction  of  out- 
door and  indoor  relief.  Bishops,  provosts  {^Probste)  of  cathedral 
and  collegiate  chapters,  and  pastors  of  different  denominations  repre- 
sented in  the  commune,  are  by  law  members  of  the  charitable  com- 
mission. The  remaining  members  are  nominated,  half  by  the  com- 
mon council  (^GemeinderatK)  from  persons  not  belonging  to  it,  the 
other  half  by  the  committee  of  state  (^Landesmisschtcss),  with  the 
consent  of  the  communal  executive.     In  spite  of  the  independent 


232  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

position  of  the  charitable  commissions,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  common 
council,  even  in  Dalmatia,  to  procure  means  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  poor  whenever  the  resources  of  the  charitable  institutions  and 
the  poor  funds  are  not  sufficient. 

If  the  question  be  asked  how  the  organization  of  poor  relief  has 
actually  developed  in  single  communes  according  to  the  principles 
expressed  in  the  laws  above  mentioned,  it  is  at  once  clear  that  in  rural 
communes  a  more  extended  organization  of  the  authorities  and  official 
agencies  entrusted  with  the  care  of  the  poor  is  not  to  be  expected, 
because  of  the  smaller  population  and  the  smaller  number  of  poor 
persons  to  be  supported.  This  inference  corresponds  with  the  actual 
facts.  The  case  is  entirely  different  with  respect  to  poor  relief  in 
cities,  and  this  topic,  therefore,  will  be  only  briefly  considered  here. 
It  is  necessary  in  examining  this  branch  of  the  subject  to  separate 
cities  into  different  groups  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  historical 
development  of  their  poor  relief,  the  influence  of  which  is  felt  at  the 
present  time. 

Among  the  German-Austrian  cities  there  are  some,  for  the  most 
part  small  ones,  which  do  not  have  distinct  agencies  for  poor  relief, 
as  their  administration  of  poor  relief  is  not  distinct  from  the  general 
administration  of  the  commune.  Poor  relief  is  carried  on  according 
to  old  customs  and  by  very  primitive  methods ;  usually  one  special 
branch  of  the  common  council  is  appointed  as  the  committee  for  the 
poor  {Armensektioii) ,  to  which  a  civil  officer  is  added  as  a  poor  offi- 
cial. A  special  poor-commission  {^Armcncoviviissio'ii)  is  found  only 
in  large  cities,  and  there  are  only  a  few  almoners. 

In  a  second  group  of  cities,  including  the  large  cities  and  the  cities 
of  the  Alpine  provinces,  and  of  Moravia  and  Silesia,  poor  relief  is  so 
organized  that  the  supreme  power  rests  with  the  executive  of  the 
city  and  its  legislative  body.  These  bodies  reserve  to  themselves 
the  issuing  of  regulations  only  and  a  general  superintendence  and 
the  management  of  the  funds  for  the  poor,  or  very  rarely  it  happens 
that  at  the  same  time  they  undertake  regular  poor  relief  This  is 
the  case  in  Vienna,  whose  magistracy  acts  as  a  board  for  the  admin- 
istration of  indoor  and  outdoor  relief  Besides  there  are  the 
honorary  offices  of  poor  commissioners  (^Armencomtnission),  poor 
councillors  {Armetirdihe),  poor  directors  {Armendirektionen,  Ar- 
me^iausschusse)  or  guardians  {Pflegeschafisrdthe),  who  act  as  corpo- 
rate bodies  with  power  of  decision.  In  large  cities,  however,  deci- 
sions in  ordinary  and  extraordinary  cases  of  actual  poor  relief  have 


PROBST.  233 

remained  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  common  council  or  magistracy. 
In  Vienna  there  is  no  central  poor  commission,  however,  but  the 
authority  is  decentralized  among  the  different  boards  of  district 
almoners.  The  chairmanship  of  the  poor  commission  is  almost 
everywhere  taken  by  the  mayor  or  his  representative.  The  other 
members  are  members  of  the  common  council,  and  in  rare  cases 
trustworthy  citizens  are  added  to  it.  Frequently  a  member  of  the 
magistracy  {Magistratsbeamier)  acts  as  referee.  In  large  cities, 
such  as  Prague  and  Graz,  there  are  under  the  poor  commissions 
special  subordinate  boards  whose  sphere  of  activity  is  partly  identical 
with  that  of  the  poor  commission,  partly  with  that  of  the  board  of 
almoners.  Almoners  are  the  executive  authorities  proper  of  the 
communal  poor  relief.  Their  functions  include  investigations,  sug- 
gestions, raising  money,  keeping  the  poor  register,  making  disburse- 
ments and  the  like.  They  are  organized  in  one  or  more  boards  with 
fixed  territorial  limits,  which  have  essentially  the  same  duties  as 
belong  to  their  individual  members. 

These  agencies  administer  either  all  poor  relief,  or  sometimes 
— and  this  is  the  more  frequent — only  outdoor  relief.  For  indoor 
relief  there  are  very  often  special  agents,  some  honorary,  some 
filled  by  municipal  appointment.  The  former  are  either  mem- 
bers of  the  town  council  (^Gemeiiiderathe),  almoners,  or  persons 
chosen  for  this  especial  purpose.  Sometimes  the  administration  of 
charitable  institutions  is  under  the  control  of  a  supervising  committee 
(^Aufsichtsatisschuss),  or  of  a  portion  of  the  poor  commission. 

Poor  relief  is  organized  on  an  entirely  different  plan  in  the  towns 
situated  in  the  southern  part  of  the  empire.  In  Trent,  which  may 
serve  as  a  type  of  them  all,  poor  relief  is  under  the  direction  of  the 
Congregazione  di  Cariia,  a  half-official  corporate  body  which  had  its 
beginning  in  the  old  brotherhoods  and  which  still  shows  traces  of  a 
religious  origin.  This  body  is  composed  of  a  president,  vice-presi- 
dents, an  ecclesiastical  member,  the  three  local  pastors,  and  six  other 
members  (one  of  whom  must  be  a  lawyer)  selected  from  the  inhabi- 
tants and  having  the  rank  of  members  of  the  magistracy  {Magistrats- 
rdthe).  All  these  offices  are  honorary  and  filled  for  four  years.  At 
the  quarterly  general  assemblies  the  bishop  and  a  member  of  the 
magistracy  take  the  chair. 

The  Congregazione  appoints  its  own  deputies  to'supervise  its  own 
charitable  institutions.  There  are  three  select  committees  on  relief 
(^Almosencomtnission)  of  the   Congregazione  whose  special  duty  is 


234  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

outdoor  relief,  and  the  Congregazione  acts  quite  independently  of 
the  city  magistracy.  When  compared  with  the  activity  of  the  Con- 
gregazione, the  special  work  of  the  city  magistracy  falls  far  behind. 

In  Galicia,  where  the  charitable  institutions  and  societies  have,  up  to 
the  present  time,  succeeded  in  defending  themselves  from  the  ignor- 
ance of  city  governments,  the  communes  have  not  established  any 
systems  of  poor  relief  worthy  of  mention.  Cracow  does  not  even  have 
a  separate  committee  on  poor  relief,  but  the  necessary  work  is  done 
in  the  city  council  and  in  the  magistracy,  by  the  committee  on  regis- 
tration and  military.  In  Lemberg  a  committee  of  the  common 
council  and  special  commissions  superintend  all  poor  relief,  with 
help  from  the  magistracy.  Besides,  the  city  presidents  possess,  in 
both  places,  unusually  broad  legal  powers  as  to  granting  support, 
alms,  etc.  There  are  also  in  Lemberg  several  subsidized  semi- 
municipal  institutions  for  indoor  relief  which  are  strictly  denomina- 
tional. 

Of  all  the  Austrian  domain,  Buchovvina  is  the  province  which  has 
advanced  least  in  the  organization  of  its  poor  relief.  With  the 
exception  of  the  chief  city,  this  province  lacks  even  the  necessary 
agencies  for  administering  poor  relief.  In  Czernowitz  there  is, 
beside  the  poor  relief  maintained  by  the  city  with  the  help  of  the 
poor  council  and  almoners,  a  so-called  Christian  Charitable  Institu- 
tion (Armetiinstitut) ,  under  the  supervision  of  a  purely  honorary 
commission.  This  commission  is  composed  of  the  mayor,  all  Chris- 
tian ministers,  and  five  Christian  citizens,  and  meets  under  the  chair- 
manship of  the  Greek-Oriental  archbishop.  The  object  of  this  insti- 
tution is  the  assistance  of  all  needy  Christian  inhabitants  of  Czernowitz 
(whether  entitled  to  settlement  or  not)  from  income  derived  from  its 
funds  and  from  voluntary  contributions.  Besides,  Czernowitz  has  a 
hospital  erected  jointly  by  the  city  and  the  savings  bank,  and  under 
the  joint  management  of  a  mixed  commission. 

After  this  short  survey  of  a  hundred  years'  development  of  the 
organization  of  poor  relief  in  communes,  it  will  be  necessary  only  to 
mention  the  fact  that  lately,  in  1889,  the  Elberfeld  system,  which  is 
of  such  inestimable  benefit  in  the  German  empire,  was  introduced  in 
Trautenau  and  Reichenberg.  This  system  has  been  eminently  suc- 
cessful in  its  attempt  to  call  forth  in  the  citizens  themselves  a  lively 
interest  in  the  management  of  their  poor  relief;  and  beside  the 
individualization  of  special  cases,  it  has  secured  a  more  rational  employ- 
ment of  available  means  and  thereby  relieved  the  charity  budget 
of  the  commune. 


PROBST.  235 

The  relative  functions  of  the  higher  units  of  government,  namely, 
districts,  states  and  empire,  in  the  organization  of  poor  relief,  will  be 
treated  later. 

II. —  The  Law  of  Setllement. 

The  right  to  claim  support  from  a  commune  depends  on  two  con- 
ditions :  first,  poverty,  and  second,  settlement  {^Hehnathberechtigiing) 
in  a  commune.  The  state  laws  call  those  persons  poor  who  are  not 
able  by  their  own  efforts  or  means  to  procure  for  themselves  and 
their  families  the  necessaries  of  life.  It  must  be  stated  here  that  the 
duty  of  a  commune  to  support  its  poor  who  are  entitled  to  settlement 
is  conditional  only,  and  can  be  assumed  only  when  no  one  else  is 
obliged  by  law  to  take  it  upon  themselves.  If  these  persons  have 
means  and  decline  to  fulfil  their  obligations,  they  are  liable,  in  case 
of  refusal,  to  be  compelled  to  do  so  by  legal  measures.  But  in  the 
meantime  the  commune  must  assume  the  care  of  the  poor,  retaining 
the  right  to  demand  reimbursement  for  its  expenditure  from  those 
whose  duty  it  is  to  pay.  The  law  ofsettlementof  1863  makes  the  follow- 
ing regulations  in  regard  to  obtaining  the  right  of  settlement.  Only 
citizens  of  the  empire  can  acquire  the  right  of  settlement  in  a  com- 
mune. Every  citizen  of  the  empire  may  become  entitled  to  ihe 
right  of  settlement  in  a  commune,  but  it  can  belong  to  him  in  one 
commune  only.  This  right  is  based  upon  (i)  birth,  (2)  marriage, 
(3)  admission  into  a  commune  {^Heimathsverband') ,  or  (4)  appoint- 
ment to  public  office. 

Legitimate  children  are  entitled  to  the  right  of  settlement  in  that 
commune  in  which  the  father  was  entitled  to  it  at  the  time  of  their 
birth,  or  in  case  he  had  died  previous  to  their  birth,  in  that  commune 
in  which  he  had  obtained  this  right  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Illegiti- 
mate children  have  the  right  of  settlement  in  the  commune  in  which 
their  mother  had  the  right  at  the  timeof  their  birth.  Legitimized  chil- 
dren, in  so  far  as  they  have  no  right  of  settlement  of  their  own,  acquire 
the  right  in  the  commune  in  which  their  father  at  the  time  of  their 
legitimation  held  it.  The  right  of  settlement  is  not  established  by  the 
adoption  of  a  child  or  by  assuming  its  care.  By  marriage  women 
acquire  the  right  of  settlement  in  the  commune  in  which  the  husband 
has  acquired  the  right. 

The  right  of  settlement  is  also  acquired  by  admission  to  domicile 
in  a  commune.  The  commune  itself  decides  upon  applications  for 
admission  without  appeal.     Admission  to  domicile,  however,  cannot 


236  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

be  limited  to  a  certain  time,  nor  can  it  be  granted  under  conditions 
limiting  the  privileges  granted  by  the  law  of  settlement.  The  special 
object  of  this  is  to  prevent  waiver  of  right  of  support  which  may, 
perhaps,  be  claimed  later. 

Duly   commissioned    court,    government,    and    public    treasury 
officials,    ecclesiastics   and   public   instructors   acquire  this  right  of 
settlement,  at  the  time  of  their  entrance  upon  their  public  duties,  in 
the  commune  in  which  they  have  been  assigned  a  permanent  official 
residence. 

In  case  of  change  of  settlement,  a  married  woman,  if  she  has  not 
been  divorced,  follows  the  husband,  and  retains,  even  as  widow,  the 
right  of  settlement  in  the  commune  in  which  at  the  time  of  his  death 
her  husband  had  acquired  his  right.  Married  women  who  have  been 
divorced  or  separated  by  law  retain  the  right  of  settlement  which 
they  held  at  the  time  of  the  legal  divorce  or  separation.  If  a  marriage 
is  declared  illegal,  the  woman  is  restored  to  the  right  of  settlement 
to  which  she  was  entitled  at  the  time  of  her  marriage. 

In  caseofchangeofsettlement  of  parents,  legitimate  and  legitimized 
children  follow  the  father,  and  illegitimate  the  mother,  if  they  have  no 
right  of  settlement  of  their  own.  The  children,  however,  who  have  a 
right  of  their  own  retain  the  right  of  settlement  in  the  commune  in 
which  they  acquired  it.  Illegitimate  children  who  have  not  been  legiti- 
mized at  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  their  mother  retain  the  right 
of  settlement  which  they  had  at  the  time  of  the  marriage,  provided 
they  had  not  then  acquired  a  right  of  their  own.  The  right  of  settle- 
ment in  one  commune  becomes  invalid  when  settlement  is  acquired 
in  another. 

Under  provisions  mentioned  below,  persons  without  settlement, 
that  is,  those  whose  right  of  settlement  cannot  be  proved  at  once,  are 
assigned  to  a  commune  in  which  they  may  have  a  quasi-right  until 
their  proper  place  of  settlement  has  been  ascertained  or  until  they 
have  acquired  a  right  elsewhere.  This  assignment  to  other  com- 
munes takes  place  in  the  following  order:  i,  to  the  commune  in 
which  the  pauper  was  living  at  the  time  of  his  assignment  to  or 
voluntary  entrance  into  the  army  ;  2,  to  the  commune  in  which  he 
lived,  uninterruptedly  and  at  liberty,  at  least  a  half-year  previously, 
or  if  he  has  lived  within  that  period  in  several  communes,  to  the  one 
where  he  last  lived  ;  3,  to  the  commune  in  which  he  was  born  ;  or 
in  case  of  a  foundling,  in  the  one  in  which  he  was  found ;  or  in  case 
of  a  person  who  is  or  has  been  under  the  care  of  a  public  foundling 


PROBST.  237 

institution  and  whose  birthplace  or  place  of  finding  is  unknown,  to 
the  commune  in  which  the  institution  is  situated  ;  4,  to  the  commune 
in  which  he  was  at  the  time  of  claiming  the  right  of  settlement. 

Wives  of  men  without  settlement  and  such  of  their  children  as 
have  no  right  of  their  own,  but  live  with  them  as  members  of  the 
family,  are  assigned  to  the  same  communes  as  the  men  themselves. 

The  claim  to  support  which  the  right  of  settlement  gives  to  a  poor 
person  cannot  by  law  be  enforced  against  his  commune.  If  by 
reason  of  refusal  of  aid,  or  of  the  method  of  dispensing  relief,  he 
considers  himself  ill  treated,  his  only  resource  is  to  go  to  the  council 
of  state  for  help.  A  commune  may  make  a  grant  of  aid  dependent 
on  residence  in  its  territory  ;  but  by  the  laws  of  certain  states  this 
condition  is  waived  if  the  pauper  is  confined  to  the  commune  in  which 
he  is  living  in  order  to  gain  a  livelihood,  or  if  on  account  of  sickness 
he  is  unable  to  travel,  or  if  it  is  merely  a  question  of  temporary 
assistance,  or  if  to  support  him  in  his  own  commune  would  be 
more  expensive, 

III. — Provisions  for  Public  Poor  Relief. 

A  commune  is  required  to  wholly  support  its  own  poor  or  to  give 
them  aid.  Support  (  Versorgung)  includes  the  entire  maintenance  of  a 
poor  person,  and  must  begin  when  there  is  a  total  inability,  through 
absolute  lack  of  means,  to  obtain  a  livelihood  or  to  pay  for  the  neces- 
saries of  life.  Aid  (  Untersliiizzmg) ,  on  the  contrary,  includes  such 
necessaries  of  life  as  a  poor  man  cannot  obtain  for  himself  by  his  own 
exertions  or  means,  or  by  help  from  other  sources.  Support  and  aid 
are  continuous  or  temporary  according  to  whether  a  poor  man's 
inability  or  need  of  assistance  is  permanent  or  occasional.  A  poor 
man  cannot  demand  a  particular  kind  of  support  or  aid  ;  but  in  the 
selection  of  different  methods  of  relief  considerations  of  humanity 
must  be  taken  into  account.  The  following  different  methods  of 
poor  relief  are  in  operation  :  i,  placing  in  almshouses;  2,  aiding  with 
money  or  in  kind  ;  3,  boarding-out  {Privatpflege)  ;  4,  billeting  of 
paupers  (^rfU('?/ei?/lage)  ;  5,  care  of  the  sick  ;  6,  providing  transpor- 
tation.    With  children,  the  care  of  their  education  is  assumed. 

By  state  laws,  poorhouses  are  declared  to  be  an  urgent  necessity 
in  an  organized  system  of  poor  relief,  and  their  erection  is  distinctly 
enjoined  upon  the  commune  as  a  duty.  The  internal  arrangements 
of  these  institutions  are  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  commune,  but 
entire  separation  of  the  sexes,  prevention  of  overcrowding  in  wards, 


238  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

cleanliness,  separation  of  the  sick  and  of  those  afflicted  with  loath- 
some infirmities,  and  the  obtaining  of  proper  employment  for  those 
still  capable  of  light  work,  must  always  be  provided  for.  Treatment 
must  be  humane,  but  discipline  firm.  In  cities  a  distinction  is  often 
made  between  city  poorhouses  {Burgerspiidle)  and  poorhouses 
proper;  as  the  former  are  intended  for  the  reception  of  persons  who 
possess  the  right  of  a  citizen,  the  latter  chiefly  for  the  reception  of 
persons  having  the  right  of  settlement  only.  Want  of  space  in  these 
institutions  has  led  to  the  custom  of  paying  a  money  equivalent  for 
the  indoor  relief  to  which  they  are  entitled  to  persons  who  are 
adjudged  eligible  for  admission  into  a  poorhouse.but  for  whom  room 
could  not  be  provided  at  the  time. 

Permanent  aid  in  money  can  be  granted  only  to  old  and  infirm 
persons.  This  constitutes  a  kind  of  poor  relief  for  invalids  and  the 
aged.  Aid  in  kind  is  almost  entirely  limited  to  temporary  aid.  It 
consists  in  clothing,  shoes,  firewood,  food,  and  sometimes  in  cities, 
tickets  for  a  people's  kitchen. 

When  a  poor  person  is  boarded-out  at  the  expense  of  a  commune 
he  enters  the  family  of  the  person  who  supports  him,  and  owes  the 
latter  reverence  and  obedience. 

Billeting,  or  placing  with  first  one  family  and  then  another,  still 
exists  in  the  Alpine  communes  where  it  was  formerly  the  custom. 
Those  not  allowed  to  receive  such  aid  are:  i,  children  under  four- 
teen years  of  age,  except  when  accompanied  by  a  parent  who  is  the 
recipient  of  similar  aid  ;  2,  insane  persons,  and  such  blind  and  sick 
persons  as  are  prevented  by  their  infirmities  from  moving  about; 
3,  married  persons  who,  by  accepting  such  relief  against  their  will, 
would  be  prevented  from  living  together ;  4,  poor  persons  afflicted 
with  a  loathsome  or  contagious  disease.  Inmates  are  obliged  to 
work  in  their  places  of  shelter  at  such  occupations  as  their  strength 
permits. 

The  care  of  the  sick  incumbent  upon  a  commune  includes  the  pro- 
curing of  medical  aid,  of  necessary  remedies,  and  providing  the  course 
of  treatment  prescribed  by  a  physician  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of 
the  patient. 

The  care  of  orphans  involves  also  the  appointment  of  a  legal 
guardian  and  supervising  the  appropriation  for  education.  The 
state  administration  frequently  unites  with  the  communes  in  the  care 
of  orphans. 


PROBST.  239 

Naturalverpflegsstationen  instituted  lately — in  Lower  Austria  in 
1886,  in  Upper  Austria,  Styria  and  Moravia  in  1888,  in  Vorarlberg 
in  iSgi.and  in  Silesia  in  1892 — come  under  this  head.  Their  object 
is  to  check  house  and  street  begging  and  to  lessen  the  number  of 
tramps,  by  giving  shelter  in  return  for  suitable  work  to  the  travelling 
poor  who  are  able-bodied  but  without  employment.  As  a  rule, 
these  stations  are  erected  on  the  principal  highways,  and  are  under 
the  immediate  supervision  of  the  commune  in  which  they  are 
situated. 

IV. — Sources  of  Public  Relief. 

The  expense  of  public  relief  falls  mainly  on  the  commune,  that  is, 
upon  its  poor  fund,  which  is  administered  separately  fron)  the  other 
funds  of  the  commune.  The  revenues  of  these  poor  funds  may  be 
placed  under  the  following  heads: 

1.  Revenues  from  the  real  estate  of  the  poor  funds. 

2.  Income  from  investments  and  endowments. 

3.  A  percentage  of  the  gross  proceeds  of  all  voluntary  public 
auctions. 

4.  Fees  for  admission  to  membership  in  the  commune  in  case  the 
commune  has  the  right  to  charge  such  a  fee. 

5.  Certain  other  fees,  i.  e.,  fees  from  licenses  for  public  amusements, 
for  hunting  privileges,  the  dog-tax,  fines  for  keeping  coffee  and  wine 
rooms  open  after  the  legal  time  of  closing,  etc. 

6.  Fines  imposed  by  the  commune  itself,  by  the  state  government 
or  by  other  public  authorities,  and  merchandise  which  has  been 
declared  forfeit,  unless  the  law  has  made  other  provision  for  their 
disposition. 

7.  A  third  of  the  property  of  secular  priests  or  of  members  of 
secularized  religious  orders  who  have  died  intestate. 

8.  Donations,  bequests  and  inheritances. 

9.  Collections  and  voluntary  contributions. 

ID.  Assessments,  taxes  for  purposes  of  poor  relief. 

II.  Appropriations  by  the  communes.  For  if  all  of  these  volun- 
tary and  legal  revenues  do  not  amount  to  the  sum  necessary  for  poor 
relief  in  a  commune,  it  must  be  made  up  by  means  of  taxes,  just  as  in 
the  case  of  other  expenses  of  a  commune. 

It  is  left  to  the  option  of  the  several  communes  of  the  same  political 
district  to  uniie  for  poor  relief  with  the  approval  of  the  political  head 
of  the  stale  {Lajideschef)  and  of  the  council  of  state  {^Landesaus- 


240  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

sc/iuss).   Such  a  union  may  embrace  all  departments  of  poor  relief,  or 
only  special  branches  of  it,  as  poorhouses  or  hospitals. 

In  Styria,  where,  as  in  Bohemia  and  Galicia,  there  are  certain 
autonomic  unions  of  communes  under  the  name  of  districts* 
{_Bezirke),  it  is  the  duty  of  the  latter  to  contract  for  and  pay  the 
charges  of  a  physician  or  an  accoucheur  and  the  cost  of  remedies  for 
such  indigent  sick  persons  as  have  a  right  of  settlement  in  a  com- 
mune of  the  district  and  have  not  been'sent  to  a  public  hospital. 

A  district  must  advance  the  expenses  of  sick  strangers,  with  the 
right  to  reimbursement  from  their  native  commune. 

To  defray  the  cost  of  poor  relief,  districts  have  at  their  disposal: 
I,  income  from  capital  devoted  to  poor  relief  in  the  district  or  for 
certain  branches  of  it,  and  from  endowments  of  institutions  available 
for  such  purposes;  2,  donations  and  legacies  expressly  given  for  the 
purpose  of  district  poor  relief;  3,  legal  revenues;  4,  voluntary  contri- 
butions. 

In  Bohemia,  when  the  necessary  expenses  of  public  relief  are 
so  great  that  the  commune  cannot  possibly  meet  them  without  strain- 
ing the  resources  of  its  taxable  inhabitants,  the  commune  is  allowed 
to  resort  to  the  district  authorities  for  payment  of  the  required 
deficit. 

The  expense  of  the  relief  of  the  sick  poor  is  chiefly  borne  by  the 
state  treasuries. 

The  treasury  of  the  state  in  which  the  commune  of  the  poor  per- 
son is  situated  must  be  called  on  to  pay  expenses  incurred  for  him 
in  a  public  hospital  or  in  a  public  foundling  institution,  when  they 
cannot  be  collected  from  his  commune.  The  state  treasury  must 
besides  compensate  a  commune  for  its  expenditure  in  the  case  of 
poor  persons  who  have  been  assigned  to  it  because  of  their  birth 
in  its  public  lying-in  institution.  By  the  laws  of  several  states,  the 
state  treasury  must  pay  either  in  part  or  entirely  for  the  support  of 
poor  persons  who  are  sent  to  live  in  a  commune  pending  the 
establishment  of  their  claim  to  the  right  of  settlement. 

In  Lower  Austria  a  special  state  poor  association  (^Landesat  men- 
verband),  with  a  state  poor  fund,  has  been  established  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  restitution  to  the  communes.  (Law  of  February  i, 
1885,  L.  G.  B.  No.  240.) 

This  includes  also,  besides  the  repayments  required  by  the  state 
laws,  indemnity  in  the  following  cases: 

*  These  are  to  be  distinguished  from  political  districts. 


KOBATSCH.  241 

1 .  For  the  aid  and  support  of  the  poor  who  belong  to  Lower  Austria 
and  yet  have  lived  away  from  their  native  commune  for  ten  years 
consecutively,  or  have  never  lived  in  it ;  in  the  latter  case,  however, 
they  are  supported  only  when  by  birth  or  marriage  they  have 
acquired  the  right  of  settlement. 

2.  The  state's  poor  fund  contributes  to  a  sum  raised  by  a  combina- 
tion of  communes  to  defray  the  common  expenses  for  certain 
branches  of  poor  relief,  especially  for  the  erection  and  support  of 
poorhouses  and  hospitals. 

By  the  same  law  of  Lower  Austria  there  was  created  in  every 
political  district  an  honorary  district  poor  director  who  superintends 
the  administration  of  poor  relief.  By  order  of  the  council  of  state, 
the  duty  of  reporting  and  advising  on  all  matters  pertaining  thereto 
falls  upon  this  director. 

The  expenses  of  the  Nahiralverpflegungsstatioyien  mentioned  at 
the  end  of  the  last  section  are  sometimes,  as  in  Silesia,  borne  imme- 
diately by  the  state;  or  the  communes  of  a  judicial  district  ((7i?nV^/j- 
bezirke)  are  combined  in  a  union  which  is  responsible  for  all 
expenses  incurred  by  its  stations. 


POOR  RELIEF  IN  VIENNA,  AND  ITS  REFORM. 

DR.  RUDOLPH    KOBATSCH,  VIENNA. 

[TRANSLATION.] 

Prefatory. 

A  good  system  of  poor  relief  is  the  beginning  of  every  earnest  social  policy. 

Vienna  is  confronted  with  an  event  of  great  significance  to  its 
inhabitants,  as  well  as  to  its  administration,  namely,  the  reform  of  its 
system  of  poor  relief.  It  is  intended  to  do  away  with  the  antiquated 
idea  of  the  right  of  settlement  {Heimatrecht),  the  insufficiency 
of  the  present  charitable  institutions,  and  the  perceptible  lack  of 
competent  charity  overseers,  and  to  abolish  the  scattering  of  the 
charity  funds  and  the  old  order  of  relief.  In  their  stead  a  system 
of  poor  relief  is  to  be  adopted  which  will  be  more  in  accord  with 
modern  requirements.     There  is  a  pressing  need  for  regulating  the 


242  PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

relation  between  communal  aid  and  private  charitable  societies,  of 
which  latter,  the  imperial  city,  with  its  "Viennese  golden  hearts," 
has  a  large  number.  This  is  necessary  in  order  to  properly  guard 
against  pernicious  duplication  in  charity.  Finally,  it  will  also  be 
necessary  to  give  intelligent  attention  to  preventive  measures  against 
pauperism  and  beggary,  and  to  better  provide  for  the  care  of  pauper 
children.  Thus  an  effective  and  well  organized  system  of  poor  relief 
is  to  be  instituted. 

In  view  of  this  thorough  reorganization,  which,  though  it  may  not 
be  entirely  planned,  ought  nevertheless  to  be  carried  to  completion, 
it  appeared  to  the  author  to  be  no  idle  undertaking  to  bring  the 
present  poor  relief  system  to  the  knowledge  of  the  general  public 
by  means  of  short  sketches,  and  to  place  before  them  in  the  clearest 
light  the  individual  points  in  which  reform  is  needed.  The  state 
governments,  the  magistracies  and  the  communual  governments  of 
Austria  will  also  take  a  lively  interest  in  the  approaching  reorganiza- 
tion of  poor  relief  in  the  metropolis  of  the  Empire  ;  for  it  may  serve 
to  discover  a  better  modtis  vivendi  in  the  intercourse  between  local 
poor  administrations,  wherein  the  question  of  support  of  persons 
coming  and  going,  and  the  apportionment  of  the  consequent  expense, 
cuts  so  important  a  figure  and  constitutes  a  source  of  constant 
litigation. 

Opportunity  was  given  the  author,  who  has  been  occupied  for  a 
long  time  as  Conceptsbeamier  in  the  poor  department  of  Vienna,  to 
obtain  an  insight  into  the  various  branches  of  poor  relief  that  require 
reform,  and  to  weigh  and  criticize  the  present  status  of  affairs.  As  a 
result  of  his  comparative  studies,  especially  in  relation  to  conditions 
in  Germany,  he  has  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  evils  of  the 
settlement  principle  (^Heimatsprincip)  cannot  be  checked  by  the 
introduction  of  domicile  relief  ( Unierstiitzmigswohnsitz),  in  what- 
ever form  ;  because  under  domicile  relief  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  pauper  should  or  should  not  be  assisted  would  depend  on  other 
reasons  than  the  simple  fact  of  his  known  poverty  and  need,  which 
should  be  conclusive ;  while  the  cost  to  those  under  obligation  to 
give  relief  would  not  be  less,  nor  would  the  work  be  any  simpler. 

It  follows  from  this  that  a  radical,  effective  solution  of  the  pending 
questions  can  be  effected  only  by  a  complete  concentration,  a  nation- 
alization of  the  charity  funds — maintaining,  however,  a  strictly  individ- 
ualizing and  more  preventive  poor  relief  policy ;  and  that  in  the 
place  of  the   present   contributions   of  communes   and   states,  the 


KOBATSCH.  243 

actual  burden  of  poor  relief  should  be  borne  by  a  general,  elastic  and 
progressive  poor  rate,  which,  as  will  be  seen  in  this  paper,  would 
entail  only  a  slight  advance  in  the  present  taxation. 

As  an  important  argument  against  this  plan  of  reform,  it  will  be 
claimed  that,  if  adopted,  still  more  indigent  persons  would  flock  to 
Vienna  from  the  open  country ;  that  as  a  result  the  poorer  strata  of 
the  people  would  be  increased  in  number  ;  that  the  opportunities 
for  obtaining  work  would  diminish,  and  that  the  expenditure  for 
poor  relief  would  be  swelled  considerably;  that  at  the  same  time  the 
smaller  communities  would  obtain  a  disproportionate  relief  from  the 
burden,  and  that  the  question  of  the  unemployed  would  assume  a 
still  more  critical  aspect. 

At  present  we  are  confronted  with  two  opposing  policies:  the 
complete  adoption  of  the  humanitarian  idea,  and  the  policy  which 
considers  the  community  rather  than  the  individual. 

In  pursuing  the  former  policy,  one  is  obviously  guided  by  the  con- 
sideration that  a  measure  which  involves  great  loss  to  a  portion,  and 
that  a  large  portion,  of  the  community  cannot  possibly  redound  to 
the  real  and  permanent  advantage  of  society  as  a  whole,  especially 
when  this  loss  means  economic  and  social  death  ;  whereas  the  sacri- 
fice which  must  be  made  to  prevent  or  repair  the  loss  requires 
nothing  more  than  the  giving  of  a  small  portion  of  one's  worldly 
goods. 

Finally,  at  the  present  day,  in  theory  at  least,  every  pauper  must 
be  assisted,  and  it  will  not  be  otherwise  in  the  future ;  but  the  trans- 
portation to  the  domicile,  the  pushing  from  one  place  to  another,  the 
wrangling  over  indemnities,  and  the  more  easy  giving  of  money 
rather  than  relief  in  kind,  and  other  inadequacies  of  the  charity 
system,  might  be  removed.  And  to  do  this,  would  not  any  one  be 
willing  to  pay  the  slight  cost  and  to  pay  it  gladly  ? 

Loning  has  truly  said  in  Schonberg's  ''Haridbuch''*  that  the 
experiment  of  dividing  the  burden  of  poor  relief  according  to  the 
principle  of  equivalents  for  profit  gained  must  be  abandoned,  because 
the  basis  of  public  poor  relief  does  not  consist  in  letting  such  persons 
as  have  brought  profit  to  a  community  by  their  economic  activity 
receive  when  disabled  an  equivalent  therefor  ;  furthermore,  that  it  is 
the  state  which  directs  poor  relief  and  is  best  fitted  to  intrust  its 
administration  to  the  proper  agencies.! 

*3rd  edition.  Part  III,  p.  995, 

t  Compare  relief  of  pauper   children,  asylums   for  the  insane  and   feeble- 
minded, etc.     See  also  the  very  instructive  article  by  Ur.  Kauchberg,  "Z«;- 


244  PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

If  the  State  would  apply  itself  to  a  good  and  straightforward  policy 
in  all  the  spheres  of  social  activity,  it  would  be  possible  for  a  city  to 
prosper  and  grow  stronger  even  with  the  increased  .influx  of  the 
rural  population  (who  are  mostly  of  the  better  kind)  in  search  of 
work.  Why  should  Vienna  fear  an  eventual  rapid  increase  in  popu- 
lation, when  Budapest  is  being  pushed  forward  by  every  possible 
means  to  the  rank  of  a  metropolis,  when  Paris  and  Berlin  are  grow- 
ing by  an  influx  of  population,*  and  when  in  all  other  places  where 
no  crusade,  open  or  secret,  is  carried  on  against  free  emigration,  nor 
a  European  Chinese-wall  system  advocated,  the  expenditures  for  poor 
relief  are  not  relatively  increasing. 

As  to  the  details  of  the  reform,  attention  is  invited  to  the  paper 
itself.  That  it  contains  more  censure  than  praise  must  be  explained 
by  the  fact  that  the  existing  conditions  create  an  urgent  need  of 
criticism.  Therefore  we  want  no  superficial  policy,  but  a  combat 
with  visor  open. 

•  I. 

General  bases  of  the  Atistrian  Poor  Law  ;  Settlement ;  Domicile 
Relief ;  Lower  Austrian  Law  of  February  i,  1885/  Nationaliza- 
tion and  a  ge7ieral  Poor  Tax. 

It  is  rumored — and  the  newspaper  reports  about  it  increase  from 
day  to  day — that  steps  are  again  being  taken  to  reform  the  poor 
relief  system  of  Vienna.  To  judge  from  what  has  been  published,! 
it  appears  that  at  this  time  also  only  a  partial  reform  of  the  poor 
laws  is  contemplated,  namely,  an  application  of  the  Elberfeld,  or  as 
far  as  I  can  learn,  of  the  Berlin  system  to  Vienna.  The  entire  recon- 
struction, however,  of  these  important  social  institutions,  and  above 
all  the  thorough  revision  of  the  settlement  law  of  1863,  the  question 
of  providing  work,  workhouses,  newly  framed  poor  laws,  consolida- 
tion of  the  many  large  and  small  funds,  etc.,  all  these  will  for  the 
present  remain  in  suspense. 

But  even  if  the  proposed  reform  were  effected,  which  is  earnestly 
to  be  desired,  only  one,  though  a  very  important  feature  of  the  Ger- 
man system  would  be  adopted,  namely,  the  individualization  of  poor 

Kritik  des  osterreichischen  Heimatsrechtes^''  in  the  Ocsterreichische  Zeitschrift 
fur  Volkswirthschaft,  Socialfolitik  und  Verwaltujig ,  Vol.  II,  part  I,  p.  87  ff. 

*The  natural  increase  of  population  in  Vienna  from  1881  to  1890  was  9.54 
per  cent.  ;  the  increase  by  immigration  only  6.15  per  cent. 

fSee,  for  instance,  the  N'eue  Frcie  Presse,  March  30,  1893. 


KOBATSCH. 


245 


relief,  with  obligatory  gratuitous  service  on  the  part  of  overseers. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  all  the  other  deficiencies  of  the  present  relief 
system  will  be  removed  by  this  means. 

To  be  sure,  it  is  not  possible  to  determine  beforehand  with  abso- 
lute certainty  which  system  of  poor  relief  would  be  the  best  and 
would  serve  as  the  only  perfect  model  for  all  poor  laws. 

The  best  of  all  would  probably  be  no  poor  relief  at  all ;  that  is  to 
say,  such  a  perfect  social  policy  as  to  all  the  economic  conditions 
closely  allied  to  poor  relief — protection  and  insurance  of  artisans, 
manual  and  intellectual  laborers,  complete  development  of  benefit 
societies  (^Genossenschaften),  guardianship  laws  (^Entniilndigungs- 
gesetze),  etc.,  that  the  causes  of  poverty  would  disappear.  But  these 
ideals  can  hardly  even  be  approached  in  the  present  state  of  society. 
We  can  see  besides  that  in  every  country  and  city — in  each  accord- 
ing to  its  respective  national  and  traditional  local  customs  — the  same 
end  may  be  striven  for,  and  if  at  all  possible,  attained.  It  will,  how- 
ever, scarcely  be  denied  that  in  order  to  secure  the  prosperous 
development  of  the  energies  and  the  desired  application  of  the 
means  which  are  now  and  then  given  to  the  service  of  poor  relief, 
certain  general  requirements  are  absolutely  essential — requirements 
which  may  be  stated  about  as  follows  :  that  poverty  which  is  known 
(inability  to  work,  lack  of  employment,  incapacity  for  self-support, 
sickness,  loss  of  parents,  etc.)  entitles  to  aid  as  such,  regardless  of 
settlement  or  duration  of  residence ;  unity  and  comprehensiveness 
of  administration,  support  and  aid ;  adequate  funds  and  a  sufficient 
number  of  charitable  agencies;  special  fitness  of  persons  who  come 
into  immediate  contact  with  the  poor  for  their  calling  ;  the  differentia- 
tion of  persons  totally  unfit  to  work,  whether  permanently,  tempor- 
arily, or  both,  from  those  who  are  only  partially  disabled,  as  well  as 
from  those  who  are  afraid  of  and  unwilling  to  work  on  the  one  hand, 
and  from  those  able  to  and  anxious  for  work,  but  who  for  reasons 
beyond  their  control  are  out  of  employment,  on  the  other  ;  further- 
more, strict  individualization,  direct  investigations  as  often  as  possible 
as  to  the  means  and  income  of  the  pauper,  the  causes  of  his  poverty, 
possibly  his  illness,  etc. ;  constant  guarding  over,  and  the  strictest 
measures  that  may  be  socially  justifiable,  against  "  afraid-of-works  " 
and  professional  beggars,  and  especially  exhaustive  care  of  pauper 
children  of  every  kind  and  of  indigent  young  persons. 

For  many  reasons,  Vienna  poor  relief,  with  its  abundant  means 
and  countless  private  benevolent  associations,  has  not  been  able  to 
take  this  position. 


246  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

In  order  that  we  may  judge  as  to  these  deficiencies  and  the 
thorough  reforms  that  are  necessary,  the  following  sketch  of  the 
existing  provisions  governing  Vienna  poor  relief  is  given. 

The  excellent  and  exhaustive  description  of  the  Austrian  poor 
relief  system  in  the  Handwdrterbuch  der  Staaiswissenschaften,^'  by 
Baron  von  Call,  relieves  us  of  the  task  of  explaining  the  Viennese 
municipal  poor  relief.  It  will  suffice  to  say  that  in  Austria  the  right 
of  a  citizen  of  a  state  to  poor  relief  or  aid  follows  from  his  right  of 
settlement  in  any  Austrian  commune.  The  duty  of  the  commune 
extends  only  to  persons  entitled  to  the  right  of  settlement  therein, 
whether  they  have  made  their  residence  ("  the  centre  of  their 
economic  energy  ")  there  or  not.  The  only  conditions  are  that  the 
person  must  have  no  relatives  (parents,  children  or  husband)  who 
are  able  and  in  duty  bound  to  assist  him,  and  that  he  has  no  other 
private  or  legal  claims  that  may  be  made  good.  In  the  latter  case 
the  commune  is  bound  to  care  for  the  pauper  until  his  possible  claim 
may  be  settled.  The  commune  itself  has  the  right  of  determining 
the  kind  and  amount  of  aid  to  be  given,  and  this  may  be  limited  to 
the  relief  of  urgent  wants  only.  The  commune  may  legally  compel 
.unemployed  able-bodied  persons  without  means  of  support  to  work 
according  to  their  physical  ability,  as  a  return  for  the  aid  extended, 
whether  in  money  or  in  kind. 

The  communes  must  provide  for  sick  persons  either  in  public 
institutions  or  private  houses,  and  provide  medical  aid,  attendance 
and  medicine.  Orphaned  and  deserted  children  must  be  raised  and 
taught  a  trade  at  the  expense  of  the  commune,  the  latter  appointing 
a  guardian  over  them.  In  case  the  child  afterwards  comes  into  the 
possession  of  an  estate,  the  commune  has  a  right  to  enter  a  claim 
against  it  for  expenses  incurred.  The  commune  may  prosecute  this 
claim  to  indemnity  in  the  state  courts  and  not  before  a  civil  tribunal, 
although  the  rulings  of  the  supreme  court  of  Austria  in  this  matter 
are  not  definite.  In  this  respect  also  there  would  have  to  be  a 
change  in  the  new  settlement  law,  or  better  still  in  the  poor  law,  so 
that  there  would  be  a  shorter  way  to  the  settlement  of  claims  for 
indemnity  on  the  part  of  communes  or,  in  case  of  nationalization  of 
poor  relief,  on  the  part  of  the  state.  For  social  political  reasons, 
however,  this  would  apply  only  in  case  the  estate  in  question  is  of 
sufficient  importance,  and  not  when  such  an  estate  devolves  upon 

*  Vol.  I,  pp.  862  ff. 


KOBATSCH.  247 

the  assisted   person  ;  then  it  would  only  be  necessary  to  discontinue 
the  relief. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  discussion  of  points  requiring  reform  in 
the  Austrian  settlement  law  (of  1863)  as  far  as  they  relate  to  the 
duty  of  communes  to  extend  relief  to  the  poor.  First  of  all,  it  must 
be  remarked  that  the  social-economic  conditions  upon  which  these 
regulations  are  based  have  changed,  and  one  might  say,  broadened, 
perceptibly.  The  former  close  connection  between  a  commune  and 
its  members  has  not  existed  for  a  long  time.  Since  the  right  of 
unrestricted  emigration  has  been  recognized,  since  the  enormously 
increased  industrial  activity  has  driven  the  rural  population  into  the 
cities,  and  industrial  competition,  on  the  other  hand,  requires  the 
people  to  remove  from  one  city  to  another,  the  traditional  attributes 
of  communes  have  disappeared  and  have  given  place  to  a  new  order 
of  things.  It  would  be  digressing  to  speak  in  this  connection  of  the 
effects  which  this  inland  migration  has  exercised  and  still  exercises 
over  the  well-being  of  the  individual  districts.  It  must  be  acknowl- 
edged as  a  fact,  however,  that  poverty  and  its  attendant  conditions, 
particularly  in  large  cities,  are  caused  by  the  economic  life  there  and 
do  not,  therefore,  affect  small  communes  which  send  their  inhabi- 
tants year  after  year  to  the  centres  of  trade  and  industry. 

As,  therefore,  the  poverty  in  cities  is  bound  up  with  their  economic 
life,  the  burden  of  poor  relief  should  fall  on  the  cities.*  Instead  of 
this  natural  order  of  things,  the  duty  of  giving  poor  relief  devolves 
in  Austria  upon  the  place  of  settlement.  For  instance,  community  A 
may  be  obliged  to  aid,  and  even  receive  in  its  poorhouse,  husband, 
wife,  children  and  grandchildren,  even  though  they  have  lived  for 
decades  in  community  B.  The  few  departures  from  this  ancient 
principle  which  the  settlement  law  recognizes  (§§i8  ff.)  come  up 
very  rarely  in  practice.  Thus  arise  the  cruel  vexations  instead  of 
benefits,  the  nonsensical  and  often  tedious  negotiations,  after  which 
the  commune  of  settlement  either  refuses  all  aid  to  the  pauper, 
or  if  his  right  of  settlement  can  at  all  be  proven  or  is  acknowl- 
edged, requires  his  removal  (^Abschiebimg)  or  transportation  home 
{^Heimbeforderung).  We  then  witness  the  disgraceful  settlement 
proceedings,  during  the  progress  of  which  the  applicant  for  aid  may 
either  die  of  starvation  or  become  a  beggar,  vagabond  or  criminal, 
or  at  best  may  obtain  temporary  aid  of  the  most  trifling  nature  out 

*Not  exclusively,  for  the  country  and  state  are  as  much  interested  in  the 
economic  destinies  of  large  cities  as  the  cities  themselves. 


248  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

of  funds  provided  for  the  purpose  by  such  sensible  philanthropists 
as  have  devoted  their  donations  simply  to  the  poor  of  Vienna  without 
regard  to  rights  of  settlement. 

It  need  not  be  demonstrated  how  perniciously  these  things  act 
upon  the  so-called  morale  of  charity.  But  among  the  people  the 
opinion  prevails  that  one  can,  by  many  years  of  residence,  attain  a 
real  natural  right — and  more  than  this,  a  social  right.  Let  us  illus- 
trate the  sad  consequences  which  this  system  of  poor  relief  carries 
with  it.  A  man,  otherwise  honorable,  will  not  marry  a  girl  whom  he 
loves  and  with  whom  he  is  living,  because  she  and  her  children 
would  thereby  lose  their  precious  right  of  settlement  in  Vienna.  In 
another  case,  two  persons  will  not  marry  for  the  reason  that  the  man 
or  the  woman  draws  a  pension  from  the  municipality  of  Vienna,  and 
the  marriage  of  the  pensioner  would  cut  off  the  allowance.  Why  is 
this  so  ?  The  i^aiionale  of  these  grounds  for  cancellation  is  difficult 
to  understand.  It  may  have  been  thought  that  marriage  might  be 
used  as  a  means  of  obtaining  settlement  privileges,  or  it  may  have 
been  thought  that  if  persons  marry  they  ought  to  have  the  necessary 
means.  These  are  certainly  no  valid  reasons.  Let  us  examine  more 
closely.  In  1890,  out  of  a  total  population  of  817,299  in  Vienna, 
only  301,035,  or  about  36  per  cent,  were  entitled  to  right  of  settle- 
ment. In  1890,  5157  persons  were  sent  away  because  they  were 
not  entitled  to  right  of  settlement.  Of  these,  2953  were  over  24 
years  of  age,  and  2110  were  sent  away  on  account  of  lack  of  means 
of  subsistence. 

The  expenditures  incurred  for  all  this  were  certainly  not  justifiable, 
and  the  social  effects  of  these  measures  were  exceedingly  doubtful. 
There  was  not  wanting  a  perception  of  these  unhealthy  conditions ; 
they  simply  acted  praeter  legem ^  or  even  contra  legem,  rightly 
remembering,  "  suvmncm.jus,  summa  injuria^  But  the  result  was 
that  matters  only  became  more  complicated  and  complaints  uni- 
versal. The  somewhat  stereotyped  poor  law  of  Vienna  (we  shall 
return  to  the  needed  reforms  in  detail  later  on)  was  to  a  great  extent 
made  practically  inoperative,  and  most  of  the  corrections  were  made 
in  order  to  repair  to  some  extent  the  injury  done  by  the  settlement 
law.  Pending  the  trial  of  a  claim  for  settlement,  the  claimant  was 
given  financial  aid  at  regular  intervals  out  of  general  funds,  etc., 
although  this  could  be  given  only  once  in  six  months.  If  a  pen- 
sioner married  notwithstanding  the  prohibition  of  marriage,  his 
allowance  was   cut   off  for   a    month   or   two   and    then    resumed. 


KOBATSCH.  249 

Those  not  having  the  right  of  settlement  were  gladly  sent  to  their 
homes  ;  as  far  as  the  law  affecting  removals  {Schubgesetz)  did  not 
prevent,  they  were  even  given  money  to  pay  their  travelling  expenses 
— only  to  be  found  back  in  Vienna  again  in  a  short  time. 

Even  the  Lower  Austrian  law  of  February  i,  1885,  regarding  the 
establishment  of  a  national  poor  association  did  not  have  the  desired 
effect.  Vienna  was  especially  to  be  relieved,  in  that  the  national 
association  was  to  reimburse  communes  for  expenses  incurred, 
especially  in  case  of  persons  who  were  sent  to  a  commune  by  virtue 
of  their  birth  in  a  public  lying-in  hospital  situated  within  its  bound- 
aries, or  of  their  having  resided  there  in  accordance  with  §19  of 
the  settlement  law,  or  who,  on  account  of  an  uninterrupted  absence 
of  over  10  years  from  their  (Lower  Austrian)  commune,  practically 
never  lived  there.  But  cases  of  the  first  kind  rarely  occur,  and  even 
the  provisions  for  the  latter,  well  worked  out  as  \h.&y  were  in  theory, 
resulted  in  no  important  relief  to  the  poor  funds  of  Vienna;  for  the 
number  of  cases  where  assistance  was  granted  in  accordance  with  the 
law  of  1885,  that  is,  transferred  from  Vienna  to  the  national  associa- 
tion, amounted  to  only  3040  during  the  first  half  of  i8gi,  with  an 
expense  of  103,563  florins,  and  3190  cases  costing  107,185  florins 
during  the  first  half  of  1892.  This  is  scarcely  5  per  cent,  of  the  sum 
which  the  city  of  Vienna  expended  in  1890  (2,244,520  florins)  for 
pensions,  orphans,  etc.,  and  homes  for  the  aged.  It  is  considerably 
less  than  the  money  distributed  by  the  municipality  of  Vienna  to 
pensioners  residing  outside  the  city,  but  who  have  not  lived  away 
from  it  continuously  for  ten  years,  and  therefore  still  retain  their 
right  of  settlement  in  Vienna.  There  were,  of  this  class,  5845, 
receiving  225,008  florins. 

But  this  law  was  not  beneficial  even  to  the  poor  themselves.  Of 
817,299  persons  living  in  Vienna  in  1890,  there  were  301,035  (36.8 
per  cent.)  natives, and  only  87,978  (10.7  percent.)  persons  belonging 
to  Lower  Austrian  communes.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were 
428,286  (52.4  per  cent.)  whose  settlement,  that  is,  right  to  reliei  when 
destitute,  was  in  other  parts  of  Austria  or  in  foreign  countries.  The 
number  of  paupers  among  the  87,978  Lower  Austrians  was  relatively 
smaller  than  among  the  428,286  individuals  belonging  to  Bohemia, 
Galicia,  Hungary,  Croatia,  etc.;  it  therefore  follows  that  in  order  to 
really  alleviate  the  hardships  of  the  settlement  principle  and  to 
relieve  the  city  to  any  appreciable  extent,  this  law  would  have  to  be 
extended  to  cover  the  rest  of  the  crown  lands,  and  the  number  of 


250  PUBLIC   TREATMENT   OF    PAUPERISM. 

years  would  have  to  be  reduced  from  ten  to  five  (as  in  the  German 
empire  it  is  desired  to  raise  the  period  necessary  to  acquire  the  right 
to  domicile  rehef  from  two  to  five  years),  if  the  settlement  principle 
is  to  be  maintained.  Furthermore,  it  would  not  be  necessary  to  be 
so  strict  in  regard  to  the  proof  of  uninterrupted  residence  of  the  ten 
or  five  years,  as  the  Lower  Austrian  committee  of  state  has  been. 

The  important  question  now  arises,  what  system  can  be  adopted 
in  place  of  the  settlement  principle?  There  are  several  ways  of  pro- 
ceeding. The  one  which  we  would  most  naturally  adopt  in  Austria 
would  be  the  German  method,  that  is,  the  system  of  domicile  relief. 
Let  us  first  see  what  objections  have  been  made  to  this  system. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  everything  did  not  at  once  change  for  the 
better  with  the  enactment  of  the  German  law  of  June  6,  1870,  where- 
by the  Prussian  system  of  relief  at  place  of  residence  was  extended 
to  Saxony  and  the  South  German  countries.  First  of  all,  demands 
were  made  that  instead  of  domicile  relief  the  burden  of  poor  relief 
should  fall  upon  the  larger  autonomous  bodies,  the  states  and  the 
empire. 

The  defenders  of  the  existing  German  poor  law*  were  opposed  by 
the  claim  that  the  communes  of  domicile  try  to  evade  the  duty  of 
giving  relief  by  transporting  applicants,  because  the  two  years'  term 
of  acquiring  residence  with  poor  relief  privileges  often  leads  to  great 
expense  which  is  generally  not  economically  justifiable  ;  for  there  is 
no  due  proportion  between  a  sojourn  of  only  two  years  in  a  com- 
mune and  a  presumably  unlimited  obligation  to  aid.  It  was  claimed 
that  the  period  necessary  to  acquire  the  right  to  relief  should  be 
generally  a  longer  one.  Furthermore,  it  was  maintained,  as  was 
emphasized  in  the  recent  debates  in  the  Reichstag  on  the  amend- 
ments to  the  present  law,  that  no  one  could  become  entitled  to 
domicile  relief  in  his  own  right  until  after  his  twenty-fourth  year. 
Against  the  nationalization  of  poor  relief  is  urged  the  injustice  to  the 
pauper,  in  that  in  case  of  continued  inability  to  earn  a  livelihood  he 
may  be  returned  to  his  commune  of  residence,  is  accompanied  by  dis- 
proportionate expense.  It  is  claimed  that  the  poor  who  are  sup- 
ported by  the  state  are  just  the  ones  who  have  contributed  toward 
the  increase  of  the  spirit  of  restlessness. 

Of  the  many  amendments  that  have  been  proposed,  varying  from 
the  reintroduction  of  the  settlement  principle  to  the  complete  adop- 

*  See  Loning  a.  a.  O,  and  the  Handworterbttck  filr  Staaiswissensc/iafien,  " Ar- 


KOBATSCH.  251 

tion  of  relief  at  place  of  residence,  the  most  practical  appears 
to  us  to  be  that  which  seeks  to  draw  on  the  larger  political  bodies 
for  the  entire  or  partial  burden  of  expense,  whether  it  be  with  refer- 
ence only  to  persons  permanently  disabled,  or  to  all  persons  receiv- 
ing relief  outside  their  poor  law  domicile.  In  general,  it  might  be 
well  to  try  to  avoid  as  much  as  possible  the  intricate  system  of 
dividing  the  expenditures  into  fourths  and  thirds,  and  to  levy  a  poor 
tax  on  the  commune,  district,  country,  and  eventually  even  the  state, 
according  to  the  per  capita  of  population,  the  proportion  to  be 
determined  by  the  average  number  of  persons  assisted  during  a  term 
of  years.  And  this  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  another  way  of 
reforming  the  Vienna  poor  relief  (one  which  we  can  think  of  only  in  ' 
connection  with  the  Austrian  relief  system  as  a  whole),  namely,  the 
question  of  putting  the  burden  of  contribution  on  the  states  and  the 
empire,  as  well  as  to  the  question  of  the  poor  rate. 

If  we  look  at  England,  Sweden,  and  other  countries  which  cover 
their  expenses  for  poor  relief  by  means  of  a  poor  rate  (besides  state 
contributions,  funds,  bequests,  etc.),  the  thought  of  an  elastic  poor 
tax  will  not  seem  so  dreadful  as  may  at  first  appear.  The  right  to 
poor  relief  should  not  be  established  against  a  commune  either  by 
reason  of  settlement  or  of  a  long  or  a  short  residence  there,  but 
because  it  had  its  origin  in  a  social  economic  disease  which  con- 
sumes state,  province  and  commune;  it  should  be  based  solely  upon 
actual  want.  The  duty  of  poor  relief  is  incumbent  upon  the  people 
as  a  whole,  and  as  such  they  should  raise  the  means. 

The  poor  statistics  of  Austria  are  too  incomplete  to  make  it  pos- 
sible to  ascertain  the  amount  expended  annually  for  the  poor  in 
the  whole  empire.  The  publications  of  the  Royal  Imperial  Statis- 
tical Central  Commission  show  only  the  expenditures  for  mainten- 
ance, and  those  only  for  special  cases  of  poor  relief.  We  find  the 
following  expenditures  for  the  year  1889: 

For  orphanages,  children's  asylums,  etc fl.  1,067,381 

For  (3)  viQx\;^ows&^  i^Arbeitsansialteii)  41,080 

For  homes  (  Versorgungsanstalten') 3,067,203 

For  poorhouses  {^Armeninstitutoi) 4,682,996 

Total fl.  8,858,660 

This  is  evidently  much  too  small  an  amount ;  and  to  be  convinced 
of  this  one  need  only  compare  it  with  the  Vienna  charity  budget.  In 


252 


PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 


1890  the  expenditure  from  public  funds  for  poor  relief  amounted, 
in  round  numbers,  to  5J  million  florins,  or  over  65  per  cent,  of  the 
sum  for  the  whole  empire. 

It  will  therefore  be  hardly  possible  by  such  an  inductive  method 
to  fix  even  approximately  the  total  expenditure  for  poor  relief  in 
Austria.  We  shall  therefore  endeavor  to  supply  the  figures  by 
deduction  or  analogy.     The  following  table  will  serve  this  purpose  :* 


Total  expenditure 

for 
charity  purposes. 

Per  100  inhabitants. 

Cost  per  capita  of 
persons  aided. 

State  and  Year  to  which 
figures  relate. 

Amount. 

Number 
assisted. 

Absolute. 

Omitting 
cost  of  ad- 
ministra- 
tion. 

Germany  (1885) 

Berlin 

90,282,160  M. 
7,318,760  M. 

190  M. 
556  M. 

2-5 

36-57  M. 
91.5  M. 

Italy  (1880)  

81,496,000  1. 

260-302  1. 

France  (1881-18S5) : 
Bureaux  de  bienfaisance 
Hospitals  and  alms- 
houses   (Etablisseiiienis 
hospitallers) 

33,620,000  fr. 

108,985,000  fr. 
142,605,000  fr. 

89  fr. 

288  fr. 

22  fr. 

18.7  fr. 

Total 

Av.189  fr. 

England  (1881-1885)  .. 
Direct  expenditures. 

;^i  5,080, 168 
8,316,000 

^30 

2-3 

The    poor   rate    in 
1883  was  6  per  ct. 
of  the   revenue 
from  real  estate. 

Austria    (1881-1885), 
maintenance 

6,213,000  fl. 

30  fl. 

1-2 

16.5-65 fl. 

( 


The  above  data,  especially  the  comparative  figures,  do  not  of  course 
admit  of  any  very  conclusive  deductions  as  to  a  greater  or  less  degree 
of  poverty,  or  as  to  the  greater  or  less  expense  of  charity  in  the  coun- 
tries mentioned.  But  for  Austria,  whose  expenses  are  reckoned  far 
too  low  at  64  million  florins,  an  approximation  may  be  made  from 
the  German  budget.  The  figures  relating  to  England  and  France 
cannot  well  be  used  for  comparison  on  account  of  the  great  economic 
differences  between  those  countries  and  the  empire  on  the  Danube. 

The  population  of  the  German  empire  is  about  double  that  of 
Austria  (50  as  against  24  millions).   There  would  then  be  for  Austria 


*  Compiled  on  the  basis  of  statistics  given  in  the  Handworterbuch  Jiir  Staats- 
wissenschaften. 


KOBATSCH.  253 

a  total  expenditure  of  45  million  marks  or  27  million  florins  for 
charitable  purposes.  Of  course  the  inhabitants  of  Austria  would 
then  be  taxed  0.95  mark  or  0.57  florin  per  capita,  instead  of  0.30 
florin.  But  0.30  does  not  by  any  means  represent  the  true  quota,  as 
it  is  obtained  only  from  the  amount  spent  in  relief;  and  if  the  cost 
of  administration,  with  the  present  division  of  means  and  energies, 
were  added,  we  should  have  to  increase  the  quota  to  at  least  0.50 
florin. 

But  we  do  not  recommend  the  introduction  of  the  system  of 
domicile  relief,  and  we  rather  believe  that  with  the  centralization  of 
the  poor  funds  as  suggested,  the  cost  of  poor  relief  would  be  con- 
siderably reduced  and  the  pauper  would  be  assisted  promptly  and 
thoroughly. 

At  any  rate,  the  resulting  total  amount  (after  deducting  all  existing 
funds,  trusts,  investments,  etc.,  which  would  have  to  be  converted  into 
national  property  administered  by  the  communes  under  the  control 
of  the  states),  would  be  allotted  as  a  poor  tax  among  the  states  and 
communes  according  to  the  abovementioned  criteria.  These  would 
then  levy  upon  the  inhabitants  in  the  shape  of  a  progressive  income 
tax,  leaving  a  considerable  minimum  exempt  from  taxation.  In 
Vienna  where  the  community  must  annually  expend  from  900,000  to 
1,300,000  florins  for  poor  relief,  this  would  mean  for  the  inhabitants 
an  increase  of  3.3  per  cent,  in  the  tax  rate — certainly  an  endurable 
"  tightening  of  the  taxation  screws."  And  this  might  be  reduced  if 
the  charity  system  itself  were  more  rational  and  the  management  of 
it  more  simple. 

II. 

Poor  Relief  Regulations  in  Vienna  ;  Overseers  of  the  Poor. 

While  considering  the  subject  of  comprehensive  changes  in  the 
Austrian  charity  system,  before  we  discuss  the  actual  administration 
of  poor  relief  and  the  charity  budget  of  Vienna,  it  is  proper,  in  my 
opinion,  to  present  first  the  concrete  details  of  the  Vienna  poor  laws, 
and  the  complete  mechanism  of  the  various  forms  of  relief  work, 
especially  as  an  early  reform  of  parts  is  far  more  probable  than  the 
reform  of  the  whole. 

By  virtue  of  the  provisions  of  the  settlement  law,  the  municipality 
of  Vienna  has  drawn  up  its  own  "  Regulations  for  poor  relief  in  the 
charity  districts  of  Vienna"  (last  edition,  1888).     By  their  aid   we 


254  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

shall  now  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  the  details  of  Vienna  poor 
relief. 

The  city  of  Vienna  forms  a  charity  district,  uniformly  governed  by 
magistrates,  who  are  controlled  by  an  elective  municipal  council 
{Gemeinderatli).  The  business  management  of  ever)^ municipal  dis- 
trict (there  were  formerly  lo,  now  19)  is  conducted  through  the 
"  charity  office."  Each  charity  office  divides  its  activities  among 
several  precincts,  and  the  affairs  of  each  precinct  are  entrusted  to  the 
care  of  an  overseer  {Arnieiiratli).  The  office  is  in  charge  of  a  general 
manager  {Insiitutsvorsteher),  assisted  by  from  one  to  three  officials. 
The  services  of  the  overseers  of  the  poor  are  given  voluntarily  and 
without  compensation.  Any  male  resident  having  a  right  of  settle- 
ment in  Vienna,  and  of  unblemished  character,  of  whom  it  is  known 
that  he  would  like  to  hold  this  office  from  a  philanthropic  feeling,  and 
that  he  is  capable  of  discharging  it,  may  be  elected.  Guardians  for 
orphans  are  elected  in  the  same  way. 

The  overseer  of  a  precinct,  who  is  elected  by  the  district  board 
{Bezirksverirehing),  is  required  to  recommend  for  aid  only  such 
persons  as  are  really  in  need,  and  he  must  avoid  any  improper  taxing 
of  the  relief  fund.  If  a  pauper  applies  for  aid  to  his  proper  overseer, 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  latter  to  convince  himself  by  personal  investiga- 
tion, made  "with  tact  and  kindness,"  that  the  applicant  is  in  diced. 
In  cases  of  pressing  necessity  he  is  to  take  proper  action  as  promptly 
as  possible.  To  impudent,  lazy,  and  professional  applicants  he  must 
firmly  refuse  assistance.  At  intervals,  but  at  least  twice  a  year,  he 
is  to  look  after  all  the  poor  in  his  district. 

Aid  may  be  given  once  without  an  examination  of  the  applicant. 
If,  however,  it  is  a  case  of  a  person  returning  periodically,  or  a  tem- 
porary or  permanent  pension,  the  overseer  must  make  an  investiga- 
tion and  enter  the  result  upon  a  special  blank  form.  This,  together 
with  other  documents  and  reports  relating  to  the  case,  he  must  lay 
before  the  next  charity  conference,  which  must  be  convened  at  least 
once  a  month,  or  if  there  is  danger  in  delay,  he  must  at  once  turn  the 
papers  over  to  the  chairman  of  the  charity  office  of  his  district  for 
further  action.  The  decisions  of  the  conferences  are  transmitted 
monthly,  the  single  cases  at  any  time,  as  special  reports,  to  the  charity 
department  of  the  magistracy.  This  department  has  power  to  deter- 
mine the  legality  of  all  grants  of  pensions,  etc.,  or  of  admissions  into 
asylums ;  so  the  decrees  of  the  magistracy  have  to  pass  through 
a  rather  long  course,  as  follows  :  after  they  have  been  signed  by  the 


KOBATSCH.  255 

poor  commissioner  they  pass  through  the  charity  register  for  entry 
or  revision  of  the  registry  sheet ;  then  having  passed  through  the 
bookkeeping  department  for  entry  upon  the  records  kept  there  by 
districts,  and  for  the  issue  of  pension  books,  which  are  evidence  of  the 
right  to  pensions,  they  finally  arrive  in  the  engrossing  room,  whence 
they  are  sent  to  the  respective  charity  offices.  The  actual  payments 
of  pensions  take  place  at  the  district  charity  offices  near  the  end  of 
each  month.  The  time  therefore  which  elapses  between  the  first 
application  and  the  final  settlement  of  the  matter  amounts  to  an 
average  of  from  two  to  three  months  under  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions, and  even  in  cases  of  special  reports,  which  are  rare  and  fall  to 
the  lot  of  only  the  more  fortunate  poor,  it  takes  three  to  four  weeks. 

This  exact  presentation  of  the  course  of  business  will  certainly  not 
seem  entirely  superfluous,  for  it  shows,  in  the  first  place,  the  bureau- 
cratic methods  of  Vienna  poor  relief,  and  then  it  furnishes  a  negative 
illustration  of  the  old  proverb,  ^^Bis  dat,  qui  cito  dat."  The  process 
of  engrossing,  and  even  the  recording  of  the  decisions,  could  be  dis- 
pensed with  without  injury ;  the  filling  in  of  the  convenient  pension 
book  would  be  quite  sufficient. 

Now  as  regards  poor  relief  itself,  the  law  defines  as  "poor"  such 
persons  as  can  no  longer  meet  the  most  pressing  needs  of  life. 

This  legal  minimum  of  existence  is  even  specified  in  figures — an 
unjustifiable  application  of  arithmetic  in  social  legislation.  It  is 
specified  that  in  order  to  obtain  a  permanent  pension,  the  applicant 
must  not  be  in  receipt  of  any  income  whatever  the  total  amount  of 
which  equals  or  exceeds  5  florins  a  month  or  60  florins  a  year. 

But  a  pauper  cannot  make  good  his  claim  for  assistance  as  a  matter 
of  right  except  through  the  tedious  course  prescribed  by  municipal 
ordinances.  These  declare  poor  relief  to  be  a  public  legal  right,* 
whereas  we  have  already  alluded  to  decisions  to  the  contrary  by  the 
supreme  court.  The  latter  has  declared  the  granting  of  a  pension  to 
be  "  in  the  nature  of  a  wasteful  loan "  (vorschussweise  geleisteier 
Aufwand')  according  to  §1042  a.  b.  G.  B. 

The  second  requisite  for  obtaining  a  pension,  etc.,  is,  as  was  shown, 
the  settlement  right.  It  is  just  in  the  largest  city  of  the  empire  that 
the  hardships  which  the  settlement  principle  carries  with  it  are  most 
sharply  brought  to  light.     Those  who  are  not  entitled  to  settlement 

*In  like  manner  the  German  law  recognizes  the  duty  of  the  charity  unions 
to  give  relief,  and  consequently  the  right  of  the  state  to  compel  these  unions 
(  Verbdnde)  to  fulfil  that  duty. 


256  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

rights  (immigrant  laborers  and  artisans)  are  among  the  poorest 
classes  of  the  capital.  They  cannot  acquire  settlement  because  they 
cannot  afford  to  pay  the  necessary  taxes,  which  vary  in  amount 
according  to  the  duration  of  residence  in  Vienna,*  and  are  relatively 
very  high,  and  would  occasion  besides  much  trouble  and  loss  of 
time. 

The  settlement  law,  cited  in  the  above  paragraph,  is  rarely  applied 
where  certain  conditions  under  which  homeless  persons  may  be  referred 
to  their  places  of  settlement  are  prescribed  ;  and  when  it  is  so  applied 
it  is  done  under  protest.  It  even  happens  that  for  a  short  time  aid 
may  be  refused  to  a  pauper  who  has  only  recently  acquired  the  right  of 
settlement.  The  idea  appears  to  be,  that  if  one  has  lived  a  consider- 
able time  in  Vienna  he  should  acquire  a  right  of  settlement.  But 
how  can  a  person  without  means  do  this,  when  there  is  no  gradation 
in  taxation  ?  And  if  a  poor  person  has  finally  acquired  settlement 
he  is,  forsooth,  turned  away  because  he  has  only  just  gained  his 
right.  The  municipality  acts  from  a  correct  standpoint,  economi- 
cally— for  the  settlement  law  amounts  to  very  little  socially. 

But  there  are  serious  faults  also  in  the  organization  of  the  overseers 
of  the  poor.  First  of  all,  the  number  is  too  small.  The  table  oppo- 
site will  show  the  necessity  for  reform  in  this  respect-t 

It  appears,  in  the  first  place,  from  the  above  data,  that  3.91  per 
cent,  (maximum  5.32  per  cent.,  minimum  1.64  per  cent.)  of  those 
having  the  right  of  settlement  were  assisted  by  means  of  pensions, 
education  and  orphans'  allowances,  not  including  those  receiving 
financial  aid  on  single  occasions,  or  who  were  admitted  to  homes  for 
the  aged,  or  placed  under  medical  care.  If  we  add  the  4,072  persons 
in  the  various  homes,  the  proportion  will  be  raised  to  six  per  cent. 
The  figures  for  those  receiving  medical  attention  or  financial  aid  on 
single  occasions  cannot  be  used  here  because,  as  they  appear  in  the 
Vienna  statistical  annual,  there  is  no  way  of  determining  how  often 
assistance  was  given  to  the  same  persons  and  making  the  necessary 
deductions. 

We  find  furthermore  in  the  above  tablej  that,  on  an  average,  there 

*  For  20  years  residence,  10  florins  ;  for  10  years,  50  florins  ;  for  5  years,  100 
florins  ;  and  for  immediate  acquirement,  200  florins. 

I  The  data  for  the  new  districts,  which  are  not  yet  ofiBcially  published,  would 
scarcely  alter  the  result  for  the  better. 

t  The  forms  of  assistance  enumerated  in  the  table  do  not  cover  the  whole, 
but  include  at  any  rate  the  most  important  work  of  the  overseers. 


KOBATSCH. 


257 


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258  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

are  26  assisted  persons  (the  extremes  being  30.9  and  13.6)  and  an 
area  of  10.5  hectares  to  one  overseer.  This  figure  is  decidedly 
large.  About  the  same  averages  appear  for  the  years  1891  and 
1892,  although  nine  new  precincts  have  been  added,  among  them 
being  those  with  a  poorer  population. 

There  is  an  urgent  necessity  for  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
charity  overseers  and  orphans'  guardians  to  at  least  2,000,  or  about 
fourfold,  so  that  in  future  there  will  be  seven  assisted  persons  to 
one  charity  overseer.  Aside  from  the  absolute  increase  in  number, 
the  present  inequalities  in  regard  to  the  area  and  population  of  the 
precincts  would  have  to  be  obviated.  In  small  District  I  one  charity 
overseer  looks  after  13  to  14  persons,  while  in  District  II,  which  is 
ten  times  as  large,  18  to  19  are  under  the  care  of  one  overseer.  In 
District  V,  which  is  about  as  large  as  the  inner  city,  31  persons 
fall  to  one  overseer,  or  three  times  as  many  as  in  District  I. 
Again,  when  an  overseer  becomes  ill  or  leaves  the  service  the  busi- 
ness is  blocked,  because  the  election  of  a  successor  cannot  be  held 
promptly  and  another  overseer  cannot  be  doubly  burdened.  The 
question,  therefore,  arises,  what  shall  be  the  future  position  of  over- 
seers of  the  poor  and  guardians  of  orphans?  Shall  it  be  obligatory? 
Shall  compensation  be  provided  ?  Shall  there  be  a  penalty  for  a 
refusal  to  accept  the  office?  In  my  judgment,  there  would  be  no 
need  of  compensation  if  a  sufficient  number  of  overseers  were 
provided  for — say  one  for  6  to  7  individuals  or  families,  especially 
as  each  overseer  would  be  relieved  of  part  of  his  burden  through 
such  a  reform.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  person  had  any  scruples 
about  accepting  this  honorary  office,  he  could  be  punished  by  an 
increase  of  his  municipal  taxes  {Gemeindeu77ilageii) ,  or  a  limitation 
of  his  right  of  suffi"age.  Of  course,  these  reforms  must  be  made 
without  afiecting  rights  of  citizenship  in  the  state,  but  in  a  strictly 
legal  way,  quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  they  would  otherwise  meet 
with  much  opposition  in  the  municipal  council. 

The  Berlin  system  could  thus  be  imitated.  There,  any  voting 
citizen  is  in  duty  bound  to  accept  a  position  in  the  municipal  admin- 
istration without  pay,  and  to  hold  office  at  least  three  years.  If  he 
retires  from  the  same  without  having  a  legitimate  excuse,*  he  can  be 
made  to  forfeit  his  rights  of  citizenship  for  from  three  to  six  years 
and  to  pay  a  higher  rate  of  municipal  taxation. 

*Such  would  naturally  have  to  be  specified  in  the  Vienna  law  also. 


.KOBATSCH.  259 

It  may  be  remarked  that  with  the  fourfold  increase  in  the  number 
of  overseers  (6  or  7  paupers  to  one  overseer),  we  should  still  fall  far 
below  the  Elberfeld  ideal ;  for  the  latter  assigns  only  four  persons  or 
families  to  one  overseer,  and,  in  fact,  often  entrusts  only  two  or  three 
persons  to  his  care. 

Finally,  we  ought  also  to  reflect  whether  we  should  not  draw 
women  into  the  charity  service,  especially  for  the  care  of  women  and 
children.  We  find  the  same  deficiency  in  the  number  of  orphan- 
mothers  ( Waisenmiiilef),  while  outdoor  relief  (orphan  pensions, 
education  allowances)  is  exclusively  undertaken  by  men. 

There  should  also  be  some  regulation  as  to  the  occupations  of  the 
charity  overseers.  Of  the  850  charity  overseers  (in  round  numbers) 
for  1893,  220  are  engaged  in  supplying  necessary  food  products 
(dealers  in  produce,  milk  and  meat,  innkeepers,  coffee  merchants, 
etc.) ;  143  in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  articles  of  clothing  and 
furniture  ;  while  only  104  belong  to  the  higher  professions.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  there  is  a  possibility,  and  there  seems  to  be  even  a 
probability,  of  the  employment  of  paupers  at  insufficient  wages  pay- 
able in  kind,  of  which  the  poor  themselves  as  well  as  disinterested 
persons  have  complained. 

The  number  of  physicians  for  the  poor  (in  1890,  19,  and  in  1892, 
54)  should  also  be  considerably  increased  ;  the  physicians  should  be 
better  paid,  and  they  should  be  placed  under  the  control  of  the  city 
health  department  and  so  under  the  disciplinary  power  of  the  magis- 
tracy. Physicians  should  be  permitted  to  express  an  opinion  only 
in  cases  of  sickness  and  consequent  inability  to  work,  and  as  to 
whether  the  disabilities  are  permanent  or  only  temporary,  total  or 
only  partial.  The  question  of  ability  to  gain  a  livelihood  being 
closely  allied  to  indigence,  and  a  social-economic  one,  would  better 
be  left  to  the  overseers. 

One  advantage  of  the  individualization  of  poor  relief  would  be  that 
in  cases  where  poverty  was  the  result  of  drunkenness,  dissipation 
or  want  of  character  of  the  head  or  some  other  member  of  the 
family,  the  facts  could  be  easily  and  clearly  proved  ;  and  it  would, 
therefore,  be  easier  to  put  the  paupers  at  work  in  a  well  organized 
workhouse,  as  well  as  to  place  them  under  supervision  and  guar- 
dianship. On  the  other  hand,  in  cases  where  poverty  is  due  to  no 
fault  of  the  pauper,  or  if  so,  in  only  a  slight  degree,  and  where  indi- 
gence results  from  alack  of  appreciation  of  the  economic  conditions, 
or  from  direct  misfortune,  the  relief  work  must  be  conducted  on  a 
broader  and  especially  on  a  preventive  basis. 


260  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

III. 

Temporary  Relief. 

In  regard  to  poor  relief  for  adults,  the  law  specifies  that  the  aid 
given  shall  be  in  money,  provisions,  shelter,  or  employment,  accord- 
ing to  the  peculiar  needs  of  the  applicants.     In  reality,  however,  the 
assistance  rendered  is  almost  exclusively  in  the  form  of  money,  pen- 
sions, or  admission  to  asylums.     Relief  in  kind*  or  by  providing 
work  scarcely  ever  occurs.     This  is  a  decided  mistake  of  the  muni- 
cipal poor  relief,  for  the  only  refuget  which  any  one  may  voluntarily 
enter  is  far  from  being  complete  enough  in  its  arrangements  to  serve 
as  a  real  and  sufficient  agency  for  giving  work  ;  and  the  asylums,  the 
capacity  of  which  is  acknowledged  to  be  insufficient,  are  rarely  open 
to    homeless,   unemployed  young   men.     As   regards   financial  aid 
extended  on  single  occasions,  there  are  peculiarly  rigid  regulations, 
which  must  be  daily  violated  if  the  misery  of  the  numerous  appli- 
cants is  in  any  degree  to  be  alleviated.     This  form  of  assistance  can 
be  used  only  when  the  distress  prevents  the  gaining  of  a  livelihood 
by  the  pauper  and  his  family.     The  recipient  must  not  enjoy  any 
other  income  (pension,  etc.)  beyond  an  exceedingly  small  amount. 
In  giving  relief  it  must  be  noted  whether  the  pauper  received  any 
assistance  during  the  last  half  year  for   any  reason,    because   the 
amount  given  for  this  form  of  relief  in  any  one  year  cannot  exceed 
altogether  15  florins  to  any  one  person,  man  and  wife  in  this  case 
being  counted  as  one.     The  approval  of  the  magistracy  must  be 
obtained  by  the  charity  office  in  every  case  before  this  amount  can  be 
exceeded.     But  financial  aid  is  not  only  given  at  the  charity  offices, 
but  also  in  the  charity  department  of  the  magistracy,  at  the  mayor's 
office,  at   the   imperial   police   headquarters,  and   at   the  hospitals. 
These  offices  do  not  come  in  contact  with  one  another,  nor  do  they 
have,  in  general,  sufficient  opportunity  for  personal  investigations  as 
to  the  worth  of  the  applicants.     No  one  will  doubt  that  in  this  way 
the  door  is  opened  to  professional  beggary  and  fraud,  as  well  as  to 

*  The  statistical  annual  for  1890  states  that  3,292  persons  received  aid  in  kind 
at  the  charity  offices,  but  it  does  not  insert  this  figure  in  the  tables  because 
"  the  census  is  not  reliable."  In  addition  to  this,  there  are  300  to  400  persons 
who  annually  receive  orders  for  wood  to  the  value  of  3,000  florins  from  the 
mayor's  office  ;  a  further  sum  of  9,000  to  12,000  florins  is  annually  expended 
for  relief  in  kind  distributed  at  the  precinct  agencies. 

tSee  the  Werkhaus,  below,  pp.  273  ff. 


KOBATSCH.  261 

the  refusal  of  the  really  worthy  but  modest  poor,  and  the  prohibition 
of  beggary  on  the  streets  is  rendered  quite  illusory.  There  are, 
besides,  numerous  private  charitable  societies,  which  shameless  appli- 
cants for  aid  visit  as  often  as  they  do  the  municipal  or  rather  pubhc 
charity  bureaus.  Finally,  we  must  remember  that  there  are  many 
aristocratic  and  princely  personages  who  are  applied  to,  and  some- 
times successfully,  for  alms,  and  then  we  can  form  an  idea  of  how 
greatly  professional  beggary,  laziness  and  vagrancy  have  been 
fostered  and  constantly  kept  alive. 

The  reform  in  this  respect  would  chiefly  consist  in  giving  more 
importance  to  relief  in  kind  and  procuring  shelter.  It  is  rarely  known 
what  is  done  with  money  that  is  given  away.  It  is  not  known  in  the 
charity  offices,  because  there  are  too  few  overseers,  nor  in  the  other 
bureaus,  because  there  is  there  no  personal  supervision  whatever.  At 
any  rate,  money  and  provisions  should  be  delivered  only  at  the  resi- 
dences of  the  applicants.*  If  they  have  no  home,  to  supply  things 
that  may  be  moved  on  single  occasions  does  no  good  at  any  rate,  the 
need  in  that  case  being  chiefly  a  safe  shelter.  One  need  only  look 
at  other  great  cities  to  see  how  carefully  and  economically  their  poor 
relief  is  managed.  While,  for  example,  Vienna  in  1886  expended 
400,000  florins  for  relief  in  money,  this  item  in  the  larger  city  of 
Berlin  amounted  to  only  116,000  florins.  The  Paris  Btireatc  de 
Bienjaisayice  in  1889  distributed  altogether  6,800,000  francs. 

Of  this,  the  expenditure  for  bread  was  583,900 

For  other  kinds  of  food  58.570 


Total  for  food  642,470 

For  fuel  40,940 

For  clothing,  etc.  98,850 


Total,  in  kind  782,260 

Relief  in  money  1,827,540! 

The  relief  in  money,  therefore,  amounted  to  only  26.8  per  cent, 
and  the  relief  in  kind  to  11.5  per  cent,  of  the  total  expenditure.  In 
German  cities,  also,  these  figures  are  35  and  12  percent,  respectively. 

*  See  Dr.  L.  Kunwald,  Ueber  Communalverwaltung  U7id  Armettp/lege, Vitixnz, 
188S. 

t  See  Compte  Moral  de  V Administration  de  P Assistance  Publique  four  I'Excr- 
cice,  1889.      Paris,  1892. 


262  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

An  interesting  result  of  the  Vienna  system  of  giving  relief  in 
money  is  the  fact  that  of  27,191  persons  assisted  by  the  charity 
department  and  the  charity  offices  in  i8go,  420  were  20  years  of 
age  and  under,  1,802  between  20  and  30,  3,946  between  30  and  40. 
Altogether  5,158  (18.9  per  cent.)  were  of  an  age  when  men  are 
usually  capable  of  doing  work,  and  were  therefore  decidedly  not 
entitled  to  aid  from  a  social  political  standpoint.  Again  in  1890 
relief  in  money  was  received  by  3,375  single,  6,322  married,  2,029 
widowed  and  54  legally  divorced  men;  and  by  2,928  single,  3,491 
married,  10,744  widowed  and  87  legally  divorced  women.  Unfortu- 
nately we  are  not  able  to  give  the  reader  still  further  individual 
statistical  data,  especially  in  regard  to  the  personal  circumstances  of 
persons  temporarily  aided  in  other  bureaus,  or  as  to  personal  facts 
such  as  age  and  family  status,  because  the  respective  enumerations 
are  missing  in  the  statistical  annual.* 

An  example  worthy  of  imitation  is  that  furnished  by  the  Vienna 

Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Pauperism  and  Beggary  (  Verein  gegcn 

Verarmung  und  Beitelet),  which  not  only  gives  presents  of  money, 

but  also  makes  loans  without  interest,  of  which  about  40  per  cent. 

are  returned  annually. 

IV. 

Pensions;  Reasons  for  Discontimiance;  Relief  of  Pauper  Chil- 
dren ;  Food  Distribution ;  Relief  of  the  Sick ;  Indemnification ; 
Berlin  City  Dispeyisary  and  Similar  Institutions. 

On  what  conditions,  then,  may  a  poor  man  obtain  a  pension,  or 
admission  into  an  institution?  Here  the  "Regulations"  contain 
some  provisions  which  have  to  be  evaded  in  practice. 

It  has  been  stated  that  aid  amounting  to  not  more  than  15  Austrian 
florins  may  be  given  once.  If  in  case  of  "long-continued  illness" 
of  the  poor  man  or  of  his  family,  or  in  other  cases  of  "  prolonged 
distress,"  this  aid  proves  inadequate,  and  if  he  is  not  entitled  to 
receive  a  permanent  pension,  a  temporary  pension  for  the  probable 
duration  of  his  need,  and  amounting  to  from  2  to  4  florins  a  month, 
ma)'  be  granted. 

Larger  temporary  pensions,  equal  in  amount  to  permanent  ones  (8 
florins  at  most),  may  also  be  granted,  but  only  in  case  of  special 
physical   infirmities ;    and    then   the    chief    condition   precedent   to 

*See  particulars  later,  regarding  their  significance  as  poor  statistics. 


KOBATSCH.  263 

obtaining  a  permanent  pension,  i.  e.  that  the  candidate  should  be  at 
least  60  years  old,  may  be  waived. 

The  magistracy  is  required  to  provide  lodging  for  persons  who 
cannot  find  a  place  of  abode  even  with  the  aid  granted  them.  The 
question  is,  "  Where?"  The  institutions  are  almost  full;  certain  hard 
conditions  must  be  complied  with  in  order  to  procure  admission,  and 
no  actual  rent  is  paid.  Nothing  remains  except  to  assist  again  in 
money.* 

This  faulty  condition  of  things  shows  that  an  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  charitable  institutions  and  of  wayfarers'  lodges,  and  an  exten- 
sion of  indoor  poor  relief,  are  absolutely  necessary. 

Any  one  wishing  to  obtain  a  permanent  pension  must  comply 
with  still  greater  requirements.  Generally  he  gets  it  only  in  case  of 
severe  illness  ("  total  inability  to  make  a  living  ")  and  at  an  advanced 
age  (minimum  age  60  years — "inability  to  work")  ;  and  if  the  pen- 
sion proves  insufficient  he  may  be  admitted  into  an  institution. 
Besides  this,  neither  the  applicant  nor  his  wife  may  be  any  longer  a 
taxpayer  in  any  way,  and  his  yearly  income  must  not  amount  to  more 
than  60  Austrian  florins.  At  the  age  of  sixty  an  applicant  receives 
the  lowest  pension,  2  florins  a  month,  on  the  express  supposition  that 
"he  is  not  yet  destitute  of  all  other  aid  or  left  entirely  to  his  own 
resources,  but  receives  some  assistance  from  relatives."  At  the  age  of 
sixty-four  his  pension  is  raised  to  3  florins  a  month,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
eight  to  4  florins  ;  5  florins  a  month  are  paid  to  people  of  seventy,  6 
florins  to  octogenarians  and  to  those  who  are  blind,  cripples,  in  short 
to  all  who  are  entirely  and  hopelessly  unable  to  work  or  to  make  a 
living,  and  to  these  admission  into  an  institution  is  offered  as  an  alter- 
native.  These  institutions  may  also  admit  pensioners  for  pay;  and 
even  persons  who  are  not  entitled  to  the  right  of  settlement  on  the  same 
basis.  The  best  criticism  on  these  principles  is  furnished  by  the  prac- 
tice ;  for  in  practice  they  have  never  been  carried  out  to  the  letter,  and 
never  can  be.  How  far  in  this  respect  the  Vienna  poor  relief  is 
behind  that  truly  good  provision  of  the  Elberfeld  system,  by  which 
aid  is  granted  on  principle  for  only  two  weeks!  After  this  time 
has  elapsed  a  new  application  or  a  new  request  must  be  made.    This 

*  That  the  private  associations  for  warming-rooms  (  Wdrmestiibeii),  shelters, 
tea  and  soup-houses,  etc.,  do  not  provide  dwellings  for  even  a  single  person  or 
family,  but  only  herd  the  poor  people  together  as  in  a  stable  for  a  few  hours  or 
nights,  is  well  known  ;  these  conditions  can  be  improved  only  by  an  honest  and 
thorough  treatment  of  the  question  of  improved  dwellings. 


264  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

is  one  of  the  points  which  will  need  reform  when  the  poor  relief  of 
Vienna  is  freed  from  the  iron  bonds  of  bureaucracy  and  red  tape ; 
and  for  this  the  present  head  of  the  community,  and  councillor 
Trabauer,  the  present  poor  commissioner,  are  working  with  great  zeal 
and  clear  wisdom.  Money  should  not  be  given  to  the  poor  for 
months  and  years  at  a  time,  subject  only  to  a  semi-annual  investiga- 
tion by  the  overseer,*  but  only  for  a  short  time.  For  invalids  or 
persons  entirely  and  hopelessly  unable  to  earn  a  living,  institutions 
are  the  proper  place. 

And  at  the  special  instigation  of  the  persons  mentioned,  the  city 
council  (^Gemeindeve7'tretung'),e.\i\\tx  tacitly  or  by  formal  resolutions, 
has  done  away  with  the  worst  red  tape  and  has  given  scope  to  freer 
movement.  The  2  florin  pensions  will  be  gradually  stopped ;  for 
some  time,  permanent  or  temporary  aid,  amounting  to  from  7  to  8 
florins  a  month,  has  been  given  to  people  under  eighty  ;  and,  thanks 
to  the  untiring  and  judicious  efforts  of  the  present  poor  commissioner, 
the  age  schedule  is  beginning  to  be  considered  of  less  importance 
than  the  judgment  of  the  city  physician  for  the  poor  (Arme?iarzi) 
and  the  report  of  the  overseer.  The  latest  improvement,  for  which 
we  are  indebted  to  the  same  persons,  is  the  addition  of  10  and  12 
florin  pensions  to  the  regular  list,  though  so  far  this  improvement 
applies  only  to  persons  who  have  been  in  an  institution  more  than  a 
year,  who  are  entirely  unable  to  work  or  to  make  a  living,  and  who 
are  otherwise  worthy  of  the  larger  pension. 

Only  citizens  of  Vienna  can  receive  a  pension  of  15  florins  a  month 
in  cases  of  destitution,  and  only  at  a  very  advanced  age  and  when 
entirely  unable  to  earn  a  living ;  unfortunately  there  is  only  a  limited 
number  (600,  400  and  100)  of  these  larger  pensions,  as  of  all  citizens' 
pensions  (6,  8,  10  and  12  florins  a  month).  We  have  still  to  speak 
of  the  reasons  which  may  cause  the  discontinuance  of  a  pension  or 
dismissal  from  an  institution.  Eight  are  enumerated  in  the  "  Regu- 
lations," five  of  which,  namely,  giving  up  one's  claim  voluntarily, 
death  of  the  pensioner,  not  claiming  the  pension  for  three  months, 
commitment  to  a  penal  institution,  admission  into  a  charitable  insti- 
tution, immoral  and  indecent  habits,t  speak  for  themselves  and  need 
no  commentary.     Not  so  the  other  three  reasons  for  discontinuance, 

*  Temporary  pensions  are  generally  granted  for  one  or  two  years,  evidently 
from  a  desire  t©  escape  work. 

tin  this  case,  commitment  to  a  penitentiary,  a  home  for  drunkards,  or  a  house 
of  correction  (^Zwangsarbeitshaiis) ,  etc.,  must  take  the  place  of  the  pension. 


KOBATSCH.  265 

which  are  in  urgent  need  of  being  reformed.  First  of  all  there  is  the 
regulation  which  provides  that  on  the  acquisition  of  property,  or  of 
any  source  of  income,  the  yearly  proceeds  of  which  equal  the  highest 
pension  (6  florins  a  month  or  72  florins  a  year),  the  pension  must  be 
stopped  at  once,  and  should  the  pensioner  have  continued  drawing 
it,  he  must  refund  whatever  amount  he  may  have  drawn  after  he 
acquired  the  other  source  of  income.  Here  every  unprejudiced 
person  will  wonder  why  this  minimum  of  existence  which  is  prescribed 
by  law,  and  which  is  somewhat  higher  than  the  limit  required  for  aid, 
was  not  raised  when  the  seven  and  eight  florin  and  the  recently 
introduced  ten  and  twelve  florin  pensions  were  created. 

In  the  practical  application  of  this  economic  arithmetic,  an  evasion, 
or  a  rather  broad  interpretation  of  the  "Regulations,"  often  becomes 
a  matter  of  necessity.  The  unconditional  obligation  to  refund  is 
decidedly  open  to  severe  criticism  ;  if  any  one  has  continued  to  draw 
his  pension  in  addition  to  the  income  of  his  newly  acquired  property, 
or  in  addition  to  his  other  sources  of  income,  he  should  only  be 
deprived  of  the  pension  in  case  of  bad  faith ;  a  slight  improvement 
in  his  economic  condition,  the  acquisition  of  a  few  florins,  whether  as 
capital  or  as  interest,  ought  to  make  no  diflerence  in  his  already  very 
moderate  fortune. 

It  would  be  diflerent  if  a  pensioner's  stipend  were  stopped  because 
it  could  be  proved  that  he  had  some  property  at  the  time  the  pension 
was  granted,  even  if  the  income  from  it  amounted  only  to  the  lowest 
pension  given  (2  florins  a  month),  and  that  he  concealed  this  fact.  No 
objection  could  be  made  to  this  provision,  because  any  one  who 
owns  a  very  small  amount  of  property,  yielding  from  2  to  3  florins 
interest  a  month,  may  receive  a  pension  in  addition  to  this,  even  if 
he  states  what  he  owns,  and  that  it  is  much  too  little  to  supply 
him  with  the  necessaries  of  life. 

"Marriage  of  the  pensioner"  is  recognized  by  the  poor  regula- 
tions as  another  reason  for  stopping  a  pension. 

Rarely  has  an  idea,  incorrect  in  itself,  been  more  unfortunately 
expressed.  We  have  tried  before  to  explain  the  reason  of  this  law, 
which  turns  the  very  moment  that  is  considered  one  of  the  happiest 
in  most  men's  lives,  into  a  most  unfortunate  one  for  a  pensioner;  it 
was  made  to  prevent  the  acquisition  by  marriage  of  a  right  of  settle- 
ment and  so  of  a  claim  to  poor  relief,  or  to  keep  down  the  number  of 
improvident  marriages.  But  are  illegitimate  relations  more  provi- 
dent?    And  do  they  not  also  result  in  offspring  ? 


266  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

In  short,  as  soon  as  the  law  of  settlement  is  revised,  this  provision 
will  become  meaningless,  and  may  be  done  away  with  without  dis- 
advantage. 

Experimental  cases,  such  as  saving,  if  possible,  members  of  the 
middle  classes  who  are  on  the  verge  of  ruin,  and  ought  to  be  aided 
by  larger  amounts,  are  provided  for  only  by  endowments  in  the 
Vienna  poor  relief,  and  these  afford  a  remedy  for  the  unbearable 
condition  brought  about  by  the  settlement  law  only  if  their  bestowal 
is  not  dependent  on  right  of  settlement. 

In  connection  with  this  discussion  of  the  pension  system  we  may 
consider  the  often  analogous  outdoor  relief  of  pauper  children. 
Children  of  poor  parents  receive  aid  and  contributions  for  education, 
amounting  to  2  florins  a  month,  as  long  as  they  are  under  fourteen, 
i.  e.  as  long  as  they  are  subject  to  the  compulsory  education  law. 
Only  children  who  have  lost  their  father,  or  natural  children  whose 
mother  is  dead,  can  receive  an  orphan's  pension  of  3  florins  a  month, 
or  in  exceptional  cases  5  florins  a  month.* 

If  children  have  lost  both  parents  through  death;  or  if  the  where- 
abouts of  their  parents  is  unknown  ;  or  if  through  "a  combination 
of  exceptionally  unfortunate  circumstances  "  they  can  no  longer  pro- 
vide for  the  support  of  one  or  of  several  children  ;  and  finally,  in  the 
case  of  foundlings,  the  provisions  for  board  {Kosigeld')  apply,  i.  e. 
these  children,  if  they  have  settlement  rights  at  Vienna  and  have  no 
grandparents  able  to  support  them,  are  boarded  by  the  community 
for  8  florins  a  month,  with  people  whose  dwellings  are  officially 
certified  to  be  sanitary  and  of  whom  "  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
they  take  children  merely  in  order  to  improve  their  own  condition." 
Children  who  are  not 'provided  for  by  parents  or  in  some  other 
private  home,  and  who  are  at  least  six  years  old,  intelligent  and 
healthy,  and  who  have  been  vaccinated,  are  admitted  into  the  city 
orphan  asylums ;  those  who  are  blind  or  deaf-mute,  into  the  state 
asylums  for  the  blind  and  deaf-mute,  where  the  Vienna  relief  fund 
pays  for  their  maintenance.  Entirely  neglected  orphans  are  placed 
in  a  "  Home  of  the  Friendless"  {Rettungshaus),  of  which  there  are 
at  present  three  under  private  management. 

*The  poor  law  concerning  the  granting  of  these  pensions  follows  a  most 
astonishing  principle,  namely,  that  a  mother  should  be  able  to  maintain  at  least 
one  child  without  assistance  (for  why  did  she  give  birth  to  the  child?),  and 
therefore  contributions  for  support,  money  for  board,  and  orphans'  pensions 
are  generally  granted  only  when  there  are  several  children  under  fourteen. 


KOBATSCH.  267 

Compare  with  the  above  requirements  for  persons  wilhng  to 
receive  children  as  boarders,  the  curious  fact  that  among  the  780 
people  (average  number  from  1885-1889)  taking  boarders,  470  were 
tradespeople,  about  30  were  janitors  in  offices,  schools  and  other 
places,  about  50  day-laborers,  women  who  sew  for  a  living,  etc.,  and 
about  100  private  citizens  or  officials  retired  on  a  pension.  Consid- 
ering these  figures,  we  shall  feel  tempted  to  regard  the  arrangement 
of  boarding  children  as  a  kind  of  Sisyphean  task,  and,  although 
statistical  proof  is  wanting,  this  is  confirmed  by  people  experienced 
in  such  matters,  who  say  that  many  of  these  "  boarded  children  " 
later  in  life  swell  the  ranks  of  pensioners,  inmates  of  charitable  insti- 
tutions, wayfarers'  lodges,  etc.;  which  proves  that  they  cannot  have 
had  a  sufficiently  steady  educational  training,  and  that  they  develop 
physical  infirmities  early  in  life — in  a  word,  they  are  not  worth  the 
cost. 

What  we  have  said  about  the  business  management,  economics, 
etc.,  of  pensions  applies  to  orphans'  pensions  and  contributions  for 
their  education.  But  we  must  say  that  relief  of  children,  and  poor 
relief  generally,  should  be  classified  according  to  the  cause  of 
destitution  and  the  condition  of  the  paupers,  as  follows:  i,  relief  of 
orphans  proper  (including  the  care  of  whole  orphans  and  of  entirely 
abandoned  children);  2,  measures  for  reforming  neglected  and 
delinquent  children;  3,  aid  for  children  of  poor  parents — this  third 
class  to  be  transferred  generally  to  the  department  of  poor  relief  if 
a  corresponding  increase  in  the  number  of  overseers  can  be  obtained, 
as  in  that  case  poor  relief  would  individualize  the  poor  and  treat 
them  in  single  families;  4,  admission  of  all  feeble-minded  children 
into  proper  institutions.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  persons 
entrusted  with  relief  of  children,  which  is  pre-eminently  preventive 
poor  relief,  especially  with  the  second  and  fourth  classes,  need  parti- 
cularly pedagogical  qualifications,  coupled  with  economic  insight. 

In  the  relief  of  the  sick,  especially  in  hospitals,  the  community  of 
Vienna  is  more  interested  financially  than  in  any  other  way.  This 
is  also  the  province  where  the  true  bureaucrat  feels  at  home  and 
happy  ;  here,  where  the  complicated  quotation  of  expenditure  and  of 
compensation  are  the  order  of  the  day,  we  find  crowds  of  notes  and 
counter-notes,  indorsements  with,  or  often  unfortunately  wiihout 
explanation,  reports,  duns—dts,  ter,  qiiaier  iirgehcr — counter-claims, 
registers;  fortunately  for  the  poor,  medicines  and  small  bandages, 
if  they  are  to  fulfil  their  purpose,  must  be  given  out  immediately, 
before  a  reimbursement  of  the  cost  is  even  promised. 


268  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

On  this  very  point  of  sick  relief,  through  a  lack  of  clearness  in  the 
Austrian  settlement  laws,  an  unnecessary  amount  of  writing  has  crept 
in.     F"or  paragraph   29  of  this  law  declares  that  a  commune  must 
take  care  of  the  poor  from  other  places  who  fall  sick  within  its  dis- 
trict, until  they  can  be  dismissed  without  injury  to   their  health. 
According  to  paragraph  30,  such  a  commune  is,  moreover,  bound 
to  inform  the  commune  in  which  the  sick  person  has  settlement 
rights  if  it  is  known  or  can  be  found  out  by  investigation  without 
much  difficulty  ;   and  if  such  information  be  delayed,  it  is  respon- 
sible for  any  consequent  loss.     This  paragraph  might,  with  a  sem- 
blance of  justification,  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  the  commune  in 
which  a  sick  person  is  loses  all  claim  to  indemnification  if  it  fails  to 
give  immediate  notice  of  the  case  to  the  commune  of  settlement 
when  known.     And   many  communes  take  their  stand  on  this  very 
free  interpretation,  although  ministerial  decrees  arid  decisions  of  the 
court  of  administration  (  VerzualtungsgerichisJiof)  admit  of  no  such 
reading  of  paragraph  30  of  the  settlement  law.     Even  if  the  expres- 
sion "without  much  difficulty"   makes  this  narrow  interpretation 
appear  the  right  one,  it  would  be  desirable  that  in  a  possible  revision 
of  the  law  this  paragraph  should  be  more  clearly  worded,  if  there  is 
to  be  any  indemnification  at  all  from  coftimunes  where  the  person  in 
question  may  have  been  settled  perhaps  for  from  two  to  five  years. 
But  this  mistaken,  though  possible,  interpretation  is  not  all ;  there 
are  communes  which  apply  paragraph   30  to  paragraph  28  of  the 
settlement  law,  /.  e.  which  require  that  the  commune  which  gives  aid, 
if  it  wishes  them  to  hold  themselves  responsible  for  indemnification, 
should  without  delay  notify  them  of  the  aid  given  "in  case  of  imme- 
diate  need,"  as  paragraph  28  expresses  it,  referring  to  medicines 
needed  at  once  and  the  like.     It  will  be  seen  that  here  is  an  excel- 
lent chance  for  an  endless  exchange  of  notes,  and  we  cannot  resist 
the  temptation  to  describe  the  particulars  of  such  a  correspondence. 
The  physician  of  the  poor  has  prescribed  for  N.  N.,  whose  settlement 
is  in  a  small  Bohemian  commune  G.,  medicines  costing  one  florin  or  a 
florin  and  a  half.  Prescriptions,  bills,  in  short  all  documents  are  respect- 
fully submitted  to  the  local  governor  of  the  district  for  collection. 
The  document  is  generally  returned  to  Vienna  without  the  amount. 
The  commune  G.  does  not  recognize  the  settlement  right,  so  the 
bundle  goes  back  to  the  charity  office  to  collect  the  settlement  docu- 
ments to  be  sent  to  G.     Meanwhile  N.  N.  has  perhaps  moved  to 
another  district,  often  without  informing  the  police  of  his  change  of 
address;  to  procure  indemnification  is  impossible;  the  florin  must 


KOBATSCH.  269 

be  deducted  from  the  accounts.  If  N.  N.  is  still  found,  and  if  he 
happens  to  be  in  possession  of  a  settlement  document,  the  bundle 
may  go  back  to  the  district  with  the  respectfully  submitted  request 
to  collect  and  remit  the  money  at  last.  The  bundle  actually  comes 
back  again  without  the  money.  The  office  at  G.  says  that,  according 
to  depositions  made  by  his  brother,  N.  N.  earns  enough  to  make  it 
probable  that  he  could  pay  for  the  medicines  himself;  or  the  ques- 
tion is  raised  whether  N.  N.  "  ought  not  to  have  been  insured  against 
sickness."  After  further  deliberations  at  Vienna,  the  document  is 
sent  to  G.  for  the  third  or  fourth  time,  and  returns  with  the  indorse- 
ment that  the  commune  G.  refuses  to  refund  the  expenditure  for 
medicine,  because  they  were  not  notified  according  to  paragraph  30 
of  the  settlement  law,  or  because  N.  N.'s  parents,  who  live  at  G.,  are 
able  to  pay  and  ought  to  be  applied  to.  The  document  is  then 
returned  with  an  interpretation  of  paragraph  28,  to  the  effect  that 
Vienna  had  the  alternative  between  N.  N.'s  home  commune  and 
those  of  his  relatives  who  come  under  the  obligations  imposed  by  civil 
Uw,  and  was  therefore  bound  by  law  to  apply  to  the  former.  It  may 
also  happen  that  no  answer  is  sent  from  G.  for  a  long  time,  and  in 
that  case  other  notes  urging.payment  are  sent.  If  these  produce  no 
results,  the  state  government  must  be  written  to.  So  far,  these 
reports  also  have  remained  unanswered ;  remain  to  be  appealed  to 
the  ministry  and  the  court  of  administration,  unless  by  that  time  the 
legislature  has  forestalled  the  administration  by  a  new  lav/.  This 
may  at  any  rate  serve  as  an  example  of  the  much  criticised  bureau- 
cracy in  the  administration  of  poor  relief,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
it  may  act  as  a  stimulus  towards  active  reform. 

If  only  the  radiant  sun  of  the  new  settlement  and  poor  law  would 
soon  rise  on  the  present  gloomy  horizon  of  poor, administration,  to 
drive  away  with  victorious  power  all  the  dark  spectres  of  red  tape  and 
bureaucracy  which  are  clothed  in  a  garment  made  of  a  hundred  kinds 
of  print,  and  whose  soul  is  the  dust  of  moldering  documents!  At 
least  a  regular  procedure  should  be  prescribed  and  made  obligatory 
upon  the  officials  both  in  claiming  indemnification  and  in  answering 
claims. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  seems  self-evident  that  the  community 
itself  could  do  much  towards  simplifying  and  lowering  the  cost  of 
poor  relief,  especially  as  regards  sick  relief.  With  a  little  "  municipal 
socialism,"  much  more  might  be  gained  ;  the  city  might  take  the 
large  corporations  for  traffic,  for  lighting,  etc.,  under  its  own  man- 
agement, and  so  more  work  could  be  provided,  etc. 


270  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

In  smaller  communities  the  same  principle  could  more  easily  be 
carried  out.  As  to  the  expenditure  for  the  sick  poor,  it  is  worth 
while  to  consider  the  example  of  Berlin,  where  a  drug-store  under 
the  direction  of  a  regularly  appointed  druggist  furnishes  the  medi- 
cines for  the  city  hospitals  and  institutions  for  the  outdoor  poor  relief, 
and  even  for  the  sick  poor  admitted  into  private  charitable  institu- 
tions. And  although  the  number  of  prescriptions  filled  in  1891-92 
amounted  to  89,760,  against  83,810  in  1890-91  and  79,732  in  1889-90, 
the  profit,  after  deducting  the  medicine  tax,  has  increased  from 
65,650  marks  in  1889-90  to  78,591  marks  in  1891-92.  The  expenses 
for  the  drug-store  amounted  in  the  last  three  years  respectively  to 
40,588  marks,  41,080  marks  and  40,886  marks ;  the  average  cost  of  a 
prescription  was  40-50  pfennigs.* 

Other  economic  industries!  are  managed  with  equal  success  by 
the 'Berlin  poor  commission,  such  as  the  "voluntary  workhouse,"  in 
which  only  independent  artisans  are  employed  to  make  up  raw  mate- 
rial furnished  by  the  poor  commission,  and  which  furnishes  articles  of 
clothing  to  poor  apprentices,  school  children  and  to  the  poor  gener- 
ally who  come  under  indoor  or  outdoor  poor  relief;  a  special  bakery 
makes  bread  for  the  charitable  institutions,  and  a  cooking  institution 
prepares  meat-broth  for  outdoor  poor  relief  (Vienna  on  the  contrary 
has  contractors  and  Canimetire)  ;  last  but  not  least,  there  is  a  special 
brewery  which  brews  the  beer  for  the  institutions  at  a  cost  price  of 
from  lo-ii  pfennigs  a  litre. 

The  expenses  for  1891-92  were  : 

In  the  cooking  institution,  1,711  marks 

"       bakery,  53>859      " 

"       brewery,  27,095      " 

"       wayfarer's  lodge,  14,510      " 

Total,  including  the  expenses  in  the  drug-store,    138,061       " 

This  outlay  is  one  of  the  most  justifiable  for  the  purposes  of  poor 
relief,  and  all  other  considerations  are  of  minor  importance  in  com- 
parison with  it. 

How  unfavorable  a  comparison  would  be  for  Vienna  may  be  seen 
from  the  foregoing  ;  in  the  following  chapters  we  will  discuss  the  steps 
which  Vienna  has  taken  to  lessen  the  danger  of  lack  of  employment. 

*  In  Vienna  the  average  cost  is  18-22  kreuzer. 

t  Compare  Socialpolitisches  Ceuira^6lat(  (BerWn),  No.  26,  1893. 


KOBATSCH.  271 


V. 


Measures  against  Lack  of  Employment ;  Statistics  and  Insurance 
of  the  Unemployed ;  the  Werkhatis ;  Labor  hisurance  and  Poor 
Relief. 

The  preceding  account  of  the  Vienna  poor  relief  system  shows  that 
in  a  certain  sense  the  "  Regulations  "  recognize  the  important  differ- 
ence between  destitution  proper  and  mere  want,  and  make  practical 
use  of  it;  but  the  division  lines  are  not  marked  with  sufficient  clear- 
ness, and  no  proper  distinction  is  made  between  inability  to  work 
and  lack  of  employment,  nor  between  temporary  and  continued 
inability  to  work.  Hence  also  the  frequent  inadequacy  of  agencies 
intended  to  provide  against  lack  of  employment  or  of  sufficient 
income,  such  as  wayfarers'  lodges  and  employment  bureaus,  to  com- 
ply with  the  large  demands  made  upon  them  at  the  present  time.* 

That  lack  of  employment,  and  not  merely  aversion  to  work, 
is  often  the  cause  of  poverty  will  probably  not  be  denied  ;  but — and 
here  the  value  of  correct  social  statistics  becomes  evident — as  long  as 
there  is  no  record  kept  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  mod- 
ern statistics,  of  the  various  factors  which  must  be  considered  in  the 
study  of  the  economic  phenomenon  of  lack  of  employment,  we  shall 
always  be  groping  in  the  dark,  and  each  one  will  feel  inclined  to 
attribute  pauperism  to  lack  of  employment,  or  to  aversion  to  work, 
according  to  his  own  political  point  of  view.  While  a  social  demo- 
crat stated  the  number  of  the  unemployed  at  Vienna  to  be  from 
30,000  to  40,000,  a  university  professor  declared  at  the  same  time 
that  it  amounted  at  the  most  to  one  or  two  per  cent,  of  the  working 
population.  The  few  thorough  statistics  on  the  unemployed  made  in 
Germany,  Switzerland  and  England — such  an  undertaking,  as  is  well 
known,  is  not  easy  to  carry  out — show  that  last  winter  at  Mannheim  6 
per  cent.,  at  Schkeuditz  7  per  cent,  (of  the  population),  at  Leipzig  9 
per  cent.,  at  Mockern,  a  suburb  of  Leipzig,  10  per  cent,  (of  the 
population),  and  among  the  Berlin  printers  17  per  cent,  were  out  of 
work. 

It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  these  figures  would  be  much  smaller 
at  Vienna;  reason  enough,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  interest  of  a  rational 
system  of  poor  relief,  to  provide  work  in  the  first  place,  and  then  to 
revise  thoroughly  this  chapter  of  our  policy  concerning  the  poor.    It 

*Cf.  Die  Humanitdt  {^VI  Jahrgang,  No.  7),  in  which  it  is  rightly  said  :  "  The 
first  leading  principle  of  every  rational  poor  relief  is  ivork  instead  0/ alms. ^^ 


2/2  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

is  true  that  we  find  lower  figures,  but  this  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
many  workingmen  did  not  receive  or  fill  out  a  question  blank.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  see  in  Swiss  cities,  for  instance,  energetic  measures 
for  introducing  insurance  against  failure  of  work ;  for  the  above  figures 
do  not  receive  their  real  value  until  we  find  out  how  long  every  work- 
ingman  has  been  out  of  work;  two  or  three  months  without  work, 
which  is  the  average  period,  are  more  than  sufficient  to  conjure  up 
the  dread  spectre  of  poverty. 

It  will  be  said  that  this  subject  is  not  within  the  limits  of  poor  relief 
proper.  Our  answer  to  this  is  the  fact  that  at  Ludwigshofen  the 
overseers  themselves  managed  the  statistical  records  on  the  unem- 
ployed, and  that  the  president  {Regierimgsprasidenf)  of  the  Prussian 
province  of  Silesia  obliged  the  magistrates  of  cities  of  more  than 
10,000  inhabitants  to  organize  official  intelligence  offices,  and  decreed 
that  "  in  future  he  would  recommend  the  dismissal  of  complaints 
of  refusal  of  poor  relief,  only  when  the  magistrate  concerned  should 
furnish  proof  that  the  plaintiff  had  been  provided  with  a  chance  to 
work  by  the  city  authorities,  but  had  not  taken  advantage  of  this 
chance." 

This  very  rational  idea,  which,  as  is  well  known,  forms  an  integral 
part  of  the  Elberfeld  system,  ought  to  be  adopted  by  the  Vienna 
poor  administration,  for  the  existing  regulations  are  not  consistent 
with  efficient  poor  relief. 

Vienna,  it  is  true,  has  a  private  association  for  securing  work ;  the 
trades  unions  also'  find  work,  and  the  "  Home  for  Apprentices  "  has 
developed  a  useful  activity.  Under  the  terms  of  the  "  Regulations," 
nothing  can  be  done  by  the  community.  And  the  fact  shown  by 
statistics,*  that  the  employment  bureaus  always  have  more  can- 
didates for  places  than  places  to  be  filled,  is  a  sign  of  the  prevail- 
ing lack  of  employment,  and  the  poverty  which  goes  hand-in-hand 
with  it. 

Employment  bureaus  {Arbeitsnachweise)  alone  are  not  enough; 
actual  work  must  really  be  provided,  if  a  large  proportion  of  those 

*  From  8000  to  9000  persons  annually  try  to  find  employment  through  the 
"Association  for  Providing  Work  "  {^Verein  fiir  Arbeitsvermittlung')  ;  of  these, 
:8  to  20  per  cent,  are  left  over  from  the  previous  year,  and  only  30  to  40  per 
cent,  obtain  work,;  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  "  association  for  placing 
apprentices"  [Verein fur  Lehrlin^suntej-briiigung')  ;  in  the  city  office  for  find- 
ing work  for  apprentices,  878  situations  and  1380  apprentices  were  registered 
in  1889,  and  60S  apprentices  were  provided  with  situations ;  some  of  the 
employment  bureaus  of  the  trades'  associations  show  somewhat  better  results. 


KOBATSCH.  273 

who  seek  work  and  have  registered  are  not  to  be  sent  away  without 
having  had  their  wants  satisfied.  Moreover,  the  already  existing 
associations  which  we  have  mentioned  cannot  possibly  procure  work 
without  compensation. 

Here,  then,  a  reform  would  be  necessary,  by  the  establishment  of 
wayfarers'  lodges  and  an  official  employment  bureau  (cf.  Berlin, 
Paris,  London,  with  their  Workingmen's  Exchange,  etc.),  and  by 
insurance  against  lack  of  employment.  This  branch  of  "  working- 
men's  insurance  "  is  supposed  to  present  the  greatest  difficulties,  and 
so  it  does.  But  in  this  matter  also,  as  mentioned  above,  we  are  able 
to  point  out  examples  worthy  of  imitation,  such  as  Berne,  the  canton 
of  Basel,  and  others.  We  have  still  to  discuss  the  only  existing  way- 
farers' lodge,  the  city  Werkhaus.  And  to  its  honor  it  should  be  said, 
emphatically  at  once,  that  it  is  not  an  imitation  of  the  English 
"  workhouse,"  where  the  expenses  of  living  are  kept  at  a  lower  rate 
than  in  the  Vienna  Werkhaus,  where  the  inmates  are  compelled 
with  greater  strictness  to  do  even  the  most  disagreeable  work,  and 
yet  do  not  get  the  proper  training  for  future  independent  wage- 
earning,  and  where  even  children  are  confined,  though  lately  sepa- 
rate schools  and  dwellings  are  being  erected  for  the  care  of  depen- 
dent children. 

How  then  does  an  individual  seeking  work  obtain  admission  to 
the  Werkhmis?  How  far  does  his  admission  give  him  the  right 
to  claim  work  ? — a  privilege  which  should  be  granted  to  all,  especi- 
ally to  those  who  are  still  able  and  willing  to  work,  but  are  out  of 
work,  that  is,  to  all  younger  people  who  become  destitute.  On  the 
other  hand,  these  persons  ought  to  be  under  an  obligation  to  work, 
and  the  commune  or  the  state  ought  to  have  the  right  to  enforce 
this  obligation  in  case  of  necessity.  This  compulsory  labor,  how- 
ever, ought  not  to  be  enforced,  as  has  been  done  hitherto  in  most 
institutions  of  this  kind,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  frighten  away  all  the 
better  elements  ;  to  individuals  already  hardened  it  makes  the  insti- 
tution like  a  prison,  a  half-despised,  half-welcome  place  of  refuge  for 
a  short  time,  to  be  left  again  as  soon  as  possible.  This  is  unfortu- 
nately very  much  the  case  with  the  Vienna  Werkhaus.  People 
are  admitted  after  examination  by  a  physician  and  a  thorough  clean- 
ing, either  by  voluntary  registration — and  by  this  method  of  admis- 
sion their  claim  to  work  seems  practically  to  be  acknowledged* — or 

*  But  the  Werkhaus  can  accommodate  only  500  to  600  persons  at  one  time. 


274  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF   PAUPERISM. 

by  commitment  in  the  police  courts  in  case  any  one  is  found  without 
means  of  support  or  legitimate  income. 

Those  admitted,  a  very  mixed  crowd  of  workers,  as  may  be  seen, 
receive  besides  free  lodging  the  Werkhatis  fare,  and  in  return  for  this 
have  to  do  the  work  allotted  them.  After  finishing  his  task  a  man 
can  leave  the  house  ;  if  he  has  done  more  than  the  minimum  task,  he 
is  paid  for  his  extra  work  on  leaving  the  institution  finally.  The 
work  goes  on  until  the  task  is  finished,  with  an  hour  off  at  noon. 
The  privilege  of  staying  out,  which,  after  the  work  is  done,  regularly 
extends  to  7  P.  M.  in  winter  and  to  8.30  P.  M.  in  summer,  may  be 
prolonged  for  the  purpose  of  looking  for  work. 

Unruly  behavior  is  punished  by  the  allotment  of  a  heavier  task,  or 
by  giving  smaller  rations  for  a  time ;  in  case  of  continued  insubordi- 
nation, delinquents  are  handed  over  to  the  police.  Drinking,  smok- 
ing and  gambling  are  strictly  prohibited. 

This  treatment,  although  it  reminds  one  somewhat  of  school,  may 
possibly  do  for  men  and  women  embittered  by  distress;  for  vaga- 
bonds and  confirmed  loafers  it  only  serves  as  a  subject  to  sneer  at 
and  is,  besides,  much  too  mild.  But  if  any  one  who  is  able-bodied 
refuses  to  go  to  the  Werkhaus  he  forfeits  every  claim  to  other  sup- 
port and  may  be  handed  over  to  the  police — to  what  end  ?  To  be 
held  in  confinement,  and  after  his  release  to  begin  the  dangerous 
game  over  again,  until  he  becomes  hopelessly  demoralized,  or  a  real 
criminal  to  be  sentenced  for  a  longer  term  in  prison. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  Werkhaus  and  study  some  of  its  statistics ; 
we  shall  find  many  interesting  facts. 

On  the  one  hand,  we  find  that  the  1,008  persons  who  were  at  the 
Werkhaus  in  1890  represented  about  140  occupations,  almost  one- 
third  being  day-laborers.  Of  these,  only  a  small  number  remained 
in  the  institution  over  a  week,  viz.  114  from  one  to  two  weeks,  54 
from  two  to  three  weeks,  36  from  three  to  four  weeks,  107  from  one 
to  two  months,  8g  from  two  to  three  months,  etc.  And  yet  at  least 
part  of  these  could  have  obtained  work  there  that  would  have  been 
in  the  line  of  their  occupation  if  the  Werkhaus  had  been  differently 
organized ;  if  it  carried  on  various  trades  for  the  community  under 
its  own  management,  instead  of  giving  monopolies  to  city  con- 
tractors.* And  the  number  of  punishments  shows  that  most  of  the 
people  are  not  averse  to  working.     Of  the  1,008  inmates  in  1890, 

*  Of  course  only  such  trades  as  would  not  injure  the  smaller  tradespeople, 
manufacturers  and  artisans. 


KOBATSCH.  275 

only  62  cases  in  which  a  penahy  was  inflicted  are  registered.  But 
the  whole  outcome  of  their  economic  wisdom  is  the  production  of  a 
few  staple  articles  bought  exclusively  by  manufacturers,  such  as  bags, 
large  and  small  envelopes,  paper  bags  (in  1890,60  millions),  scolloped 
tags  and  labels,  pasting,  etc.*  Besides  this  a  very  small  amount  of 
tailoring  is  done  for  the  use  of  the  institution,  and  some  of  the  bed- 
ding  is  made  on  the  premises.  As  a  result  of  this  condition  of  its 
productive  activity,  the  proceeds  of  work  done  in  1890  amounted  to 
17,138  florins,  while  the  total  expenses  came  to  more  than  50,000 
florins,  and  of  this  sum  only  3,000  florins  went  to  the  workingmen  as 
pay  for  extra  work. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  also  that  the/^-r  capita  cost  per  day  in  1890 
came  to  42.03  kreuzers,  of  which  22  kreuzers  were  spent  for  food; 
while  in  the  six  homes  the  average  cost  was  57.3  kreuzers,  the 
maximum  being  75.68  kreuzers,  the  minimum  45.99  kreuzers  (in 
the  younger  institution  at  Liesing).  With  this  may  be  contrasted 
the  fact  that  of  the  4,072  inmates  of  the  other  institutions  only  642 
were  under  50  years  of  age,  and  1,165  under  60,  while  the  Werkhaus 
sheltered  only  109  persons  over  50,  and  773  between  20  and  40. 
In  the  former  institutions  there  are  then  84  persons  in  every  100 
who  are  either  entirely  or  almost  entirely  incapable  of  earning 
anything,  who  can  no  longer  work,  and  who  therefore  do  not 
require  such  strong  food  as  the  90  persons  out  of  every  100  in  the 
Werkhaus,  who  are  in  full  possession  of  their  strength,  and  are  com- 
pelled to  do  work  which  is  so  little  in  the  line  of  their  chosen  occu- 
pation. 

*  Another  example  of  interference  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  with 
personal  liberty  is  worthy  of  imitation.  I  refer  to  the  latest  report  of  the 
Marburg  House  of  Correction  for  Men,  in  the  Allgemehie  dsterreichische 
Gerichts-Zeitung,  of  April  15,  1893  ;  there  they  have  workshops  for  carpenters, 
blacksmiths, locksmiths, weavers, tailors  and  shoemakers;  they  also  have  agri- 
culture. 

The  net  income  from  work  done  amounted  in  1890  to  7,384  florins,  in  1892 
to  25,678  florins.  During  the  last  year  730  convicts  were  supported  156,069 
days,  of  which  94,198  were  working  days,  911  were  days  on  which  extra  work 
was  prescribed  as  a  penalty,  and  19,982  were  holidays.  The  cost  of  living 
amounted  (without  bread)  to  21,871  florins,  or  14  kreuzer  per  capita  per  day. 
Such  cheap  living  would  not  be  possible  in  Vienna,  and  could  not  be  recom- 
mended ;  but  we  would  recommend  the  excellent  organization  of  the  work  ; 
and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  manufactured  articles  were  provided  almost  ex- 
clusively for  imperial  offices  and  authorities  (parts  of  uniforms,  etc.),  and  that 
only  turners  and  bookbinders  furnished  articles  to  private  contractors. 


2/6  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

This  calculation  may  not  contain  exactly  the  same  items  on  both 
sides,  but  one  thing  is  shown  clearly,  namely,  that  not  nearly  so 
much  is  spent,  either  relatively  or  absolutely,  for  preventive  poor 
relief  as  for  the  final  provision  for  the  aged.  We  can  therefore  only 
repeat:  lack  of  employment,  whether  involuntary  or  through  aver- 
sion to  work,  must  be  done  away  with  when  the  individual  is  able- 
bodied,  in  the  first  case  by  an  official  supplying  of  work,  or  by  institu- 
tions providing  work,  in  the  second  by  houses  of  correction  {Zwavgs- 
arbeitshatiser).  For  although  by  the  law  of  1885  the  community 
of  Vienna  has  the  right  to  prescribe  to  such  persons  as  are  able  to 
work,  and  have  no  legitimate  trade  or  other  means  of  support,  some 
work  corresponding  to  their  capacity,  in  return  for  money  or  food, 
it  does  not  follow  that  the  community  is  under  any  obligation  to 
practice  this  kind  of  poor  relief;  and  as  we  have  seen,  this  method 
is  not  sufficiently  adopted. 

If  such  a  person  refuses  to  accept  the  work  assigned  he  is  pun- 
ished or  detained  in  a  house  of  correction  (minors  in  a  reformatory), 
lor  not  longer  than  three  years.  Of  these  institutions  also  there  are 
not  enough,  and  their  number  must  certainly  be  increased  in  order 
to  accomplish  the  perfecting  of  the  poor  relief  system.  Our  attempts 
to  diminish  pauperism,  as  far  as  it  is  a  consequence  of  lack  of  work, 
would  be  greatly  assisted  by  the  rapid  perfecting  of  the  laws  on 
workingmen's  insurance,  which  are  preventive  in  their  very  nature, 
as  well  as  by  a  generally  wise  policy  regarding  the  poor,  and  a  wise 
poor  police  (^Armenpolizei^.  As  yet  the  Austrian  workingman  has 
no  law  on  the  insurance  of  the  aged  and  infirm  ;  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  for  the  poor  funds  of  Vienna,  such  laws  would  be  of  great 
economic  value.  Statistics  on  the  decrease  of  poor  relief  in  the 
kingdom  of  Saxony  inform  us  that,  as  a  visible  result  of  working- 
men's  insurance,  there  has  been  a  reduction  in  the  number 

of  those  assisted  because  of  accidents,  from  2,463  in  1880  to  1,378 
in  1890  (a  decrease  of  43  per  cent.); 

of  those  assisted   because   of  sickness,  from   25,070  in    1880  to 
18,859  in  1890  (a  decrease  of  26.5  per  cent.); 

of  those  assisted  for  other  reasons,  from  66,185  in  1880  to  60,659 
in  1890  (a  decrease  of  14  per  cent.); 

while  the  population  in  these  years  has  increased  17  per  cent. 
These  statistics  of  course  are  open  to  the  objection  that  the  records 
of  boards  of  poor  relief  and  of  private  organizations  cannot  be 
depended  on  for  ten  or  twelve  years  back,  as  to  whether  the  reason 
for  assistance  was  accident,  sickness  or  some  other  cause. 


KOBATSCH.  277 

To  make  a  similar  comparison  for  Vienna  we  must  limit  ourselves 
to  the  expenses  for  the  care  of  the  sick.  The  percentage  of  increase 
in  these  since  1888*  is  really  a  little  less  than  that  in  the  expenses  for 
the  care  of  pauper  children  ;  but  this  difference  is  too  infinitesimal  to 
enable  us  to  draw  a  definite  conclusion  as  to  the  effect  of  the  work- 
ingmen's  insurance  on  the  poor  tax.  Possibly  there  may  be  some 
significance  in  the  reduction  of  expenditure  for  medicine  from  22,787 
florins  in  1888  to  19,330  florins  in  1889,  and  to  19,506  florins  in  1890. 

We  have  also  spoken  of  the  poor  police.  In  this  department  of 
what  one  might  call  "  repressive  "  poor  relief,  the  regulations  are 
very  numerous  and  most  actively  enforced.  That,  together  with 
the  problem  of  lack  of  work,  Schubwesen,\  commitment  and  detention, 
prostitution,  vagrancy  and  tramps,  treatment  of  released  criminals, 
intoxication,  servants'  homes,  people's  homes,  etc.,  should  be  brought 
under  reasonable  regulations  based  on  the  principles  of  true  social 
economy,  is  as  inevitably  necessary  as  that  influence  should  be 
brought  to  bear  on  savings  banks,  saving  and  loan  associations,  all 
aid-funds,  pawnbrokers'  establishments,  building  and  credit  societies, 
and  on  all  institutions  generally  which,  though  started  by  private 
individuals,  touch  the  economic  sphere  of  those  who  are  weak  from 
the  economic  point  of  view. 

Thus  our  policy  concerning  the  poor  forms  an  integral,  inseparable 
element  in  the  general  great  social  economy  of  the  day. 

VI. 

Charity  Budget ;  Co7isolidation  of  Revenues  ;  Centralization  {Pri- 
vate Societies). 

An  all-around  reform  of  the  poor  relief  system  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  for  the  Vienna  charity  budget. 

Here  we  must  again  say  emphatically  that  even  after  the  adoption 
of  such  a  poor  tax  as  we  propose,  the  present  regular  revenues  of  this 
budget  should  remain  the  same ;  they  would  only  change  holders, 
i.  e.  instead  of  the  community  and  numerous  professionals,  the  state 
alone  would  assume  control  over  all  the  money  and  other  revenues. 

*The  law  of  workingmen's  insurance  against  sickness  has  been  in  force 
since  July,  1888.  Since  we  have  no  data  on  poor  relief  given  in  case  of 
accident,  the  accident  insurance  law  cannot  be  considered  here. 

tThe  English  poor  law  recognizes  the  so-called  "irremovability,"  /'.  e.  that 
nobody  who  has  lived  in  a  place  longer  than  a  year  without  having  received 
some  relief  can  be  sent  off  to  another  community. 


278  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

The  largest  fund  (in  point  of  expenditure,  though  not  in  amount) 
which  has  been  used  for  charitable  purposes  so  far  is  the  general 
charity  fund.  Its  balance  sheets  for  the  last  few  years  show  an 
income  and  expenditure  of  two  and  a  half  millions  in  round  numbers. 
But  for  years  this  fund  has  been  considerably  in  debt  to  the  commu- 
nity, which  every  year  has  had  to  make  up  its  deficit.  Since  1882 
this  deficit  has  amounted  to  over  a  million  florins  a  year,  so  that  the 
debt  of  the  fund  to  the  community,  which  amounted  to  2J  million 
florins  in  1873,  increased  to  5  millions  in  1881,  to  6  millions  in  1883, 
to  over  7  millions  in  1S85,  to  8J  millions  in  1887  and  to  9^  millions 
in  1890. 

Since  1893  the  expenditures  of  the  fund  have  been  included  in  the 
regular  estimate  of  the  community,  and  its  deficit  has  vanished. 
Nevertheless,  the  revenues  of  the  charity  fund,  although  they  have 
remained  the  same  as  before,  will  hardly  make  up  to  the  commu- 
nity the  expenses  which  now  fall  on  it  instead  of  on  the  fund.  The 
expenditure  not  covered  by  the  regular  revenues  for  charitable  pur- 
poses* would  have  to  be  provided  for  by  the  tax  we  have  proposed 
and  by  the  contributions  of  the  states.  By  this  arrangement  Vienna 
would  have  to  spend  money  on  afar  greater  number  of  poor  than  now, 
but  its  expenses  would  be  lessened  through  an  increase  in  the  number 
of  overseers  and  a  consequently  more  rational  and  economic  poor 
relief. 

The  consolidation  of  the  various  funds  and  endowments  would 
mean  an  important  simplification  of  the  poor  finances  ;  for  their 
various  purposes  would  no  longer  be  absolutely  necessary.  This 
proposition  would  probably  be  violently  opposed  in  collecting  the 
large  city  fund  for  the  aged  (^Bilrgerspital/oJid) ,  and  such  an  opposi- 
tion would  have  some  justification  in  tradition ;  but  the  difficulty 
might  be  solved  by  guaranteeing  to  citizens  now  living,  in  the  event 
of  their  becoming  poor,  the  same  benefits  as  before,  but  not  extend- 
ing them  to  others  in  future. 

It  is  clear  that  the  adoption  of  a  principle  on  which  to  base  the 
reform  of  all  philanthropic  organizations  is  of  great  importance  finan- 
cially and  presents  much  difficulty.  It  is  possible  that,  while  the 
revenues  remain  the  same,  one  item  or  another  might  increase,  or 
that  new  expenses  would  have  to  be  provided  for.  The  balance  of 
income  and  expenditure    must  therefore   be   carefully   considered 

*  Interest,  income,  legacies  and  donations,  taxes  on  music  permits,  succes- 
sion and  auction  taxes,  poor  lottery,  fines,  etc. 


KOBATSCH.  279 

before  one  ventures  to  draw  up  the  preliminaries  of  the  future  charity 
budget. 

Since  the  time  of  residence  of  a  pensioner  is  not  recorded  at 
Vienna,  it  is  difficult  to  calculate  by  how  much  the  number  of  persons 
to  be  aided  would  increase  by  the  introduction  of  domicile  relief.* 

On  the  other  hand  we  are  able  to  state  how  many  florins  Vienna 
pays  each  year  to  people  having  settlement  rights  in  Vienna  but 
who  are  living  in  other  places  (in  1891,  247,377  florins),  and  to  com- 
pare with  this  the  sum  refunded  on  the  temporary  outlay  made  by 
Vienna  for  the  poor  from  other  places  ;  the  total  expenditure  for  1891 
amounted  to  about  600,000  florins,  of  which  about  300,000  florins 
were  refunded.  Both  figures  are  subject  to  modification,  though  it 
is  impossible  to  say  exactly  how  much  ;  the  former,  because  the 
people  having  settlement  rights  at  Vienna  but  living  elsewhere  may 
have  acquired  a  claim  to  domicile  relief  at  their  places  of  residence, 
and  because  there  the  length  of  time  for  which  such  persons 
have  been  absent  from  their  settlement  commune  would  not  be 
known  unless  they  had  been  absent  for  more  than  ten  years. 
Finally,  balances  between  the  national  poor  associations  {Landar- 
me^iverbande)  would  have  to  be  struck,  a  problem  which  cannot  be 
solved  with  even  approximate  accuracy,  and  which,  if  solved,  would 
in  practice  involve  complicated  operations. 

Taking  it  all  in  all,  the  introduction  of  domicile  relief,  whether  to 
be  acquired  by  two  or  by  five  years'  residence,  would  probably  not 
result  in  that  simplification  of  the  poor  administration  which  one 
might  expect.  Add  to  this  the  doubts  raised  in  the  German  litera- 
ture of  the  subject  and  in  practice,  and  it  would  bedifificult  to  remain 
an  enthusiastic  defender  of  this  method  of  poor  relief.  And  why 
should  the  time  be  fixed  at  two  or  at  five  years  ?  Why  not  three, 
four  or  six  years  ?  Or  why  not  from  three  to  five  years?  We  think 
that  anybody  should  be  entitled  to  aid  from  the  state  as  a  whole 

*Inama  Sternnegg,  in  his  book  Die  personlichen  Verhdltnisse  der  Wiener 
Armen  (Vienna,  1892),  states  the  time  of  residence  at  Vienna  of  about  10,000 
persons  with  no  settlement  rights  at  Vienna,  but  aided  by  the  Association  for 
the  Prevention  of  Pauperism  and  Begging  {Verein  gegen  Verarmung  und 
Bettelei)  as  follows  : 

Up  to  I  year 1.6  per  cent, 

I  to  2  years 2.9         " 

3  to  5  years 5.4 

6toioyears 14.8         " 

I I  to  20  years 34.9         " 

Over  20  years 40.4         " 


280  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

simply  on  the  ground  of  his  being  in  need  of  aid,  and  not  on  the 
ground  of  his  settlement  or  his  residence.  And  so  the  nationaliza- 
tion of  poor  relief  with  the  addition  of  a  poor  tax,  as  described  in 
the  beginning  of  this  paper,  would  lead  to  a  natural  solution  of  the 
problem.  And  here  we  would  point  out  the  beneficial  influence 
which  the  institution  of  the  poor  tax  has  exercised  on  the  charitable 
morals  of  the  countries  where  it  has  been  introduced,  acting  as  a 
wholesome  restraint. 

And  so  it  would  be  at  Vienna;  an  elastic  poor  tax,  which  might 
be  called  an  infallible  barometer  indicating  the  status  of  poor  relief 
at  any  time,  awakens  a  livelier  interest  because  not  simply  a  moral 
one  ;  for  every  citizen  who  has  the  means  must  bear  his  share  of  the 
expense ;  every  variation  for  better  or  worse  in  municipal  prosperity 
will  be  carefully  noticed  and  anticipated,  and  every  effort  will  be 
made  to  check  as  quickly  as  possible  any  lowering  of  economic  con- 
ditions in  its  very  beginning  by  every  kind  of  private  and  social 
co-operation  ;  preventive  poor  relief  will  be  adopted  to  a  greater 
extent,  and  our  policy  regarding  the  poor  will  become  the  common 
concern  of  all;  every  one  in  his  own  sphere  will  seek  remedies  and 
improvements. 

So  we  have  no  fear  for  the  success  of  the  following  principle : 
nationalization  of  poor  relief  as  regards  finances  and  claims  for  aid  ; 
if  necessary,  the  levying  of  a  poor  tax. 

When  all  the  other  reforms  proposed  by  us  in  poor  relief  proper, 
and  in  preventive  care  of  the  poor,  which  might  be  simplified  and 
made  more  economical  in  various  ways,  are  carried  out  with  wisdom 
and  justice,  the  expense  of  relief  will  hardly  be  greater  comparatively 
speaking  than  now,  and  if  a  "  kreuzer  rate  for  the  poor  "  (^Armen- 
zinskreuzer)  were  to  be  imposed  on  the  inhabitants  of  Vienna,  the 
collection  of  the  necessary  amount  would  certainly  not  be  felt. 

There  is  one  more  reform  needed,  and  we  have  already  touched 
on  it :  pablic  and  private  poor  relief  must  be  brought  into  touch  with 
one  another.  Various  attempts  (the  latest  in  1883)  have  been  made 
at  Vienna  to  bring  the  two  closer  together,  but  so  far  without  suc- 
cess. The  two  systems  which  are  now  separate  might  at  least  have 
a  common  financial  administration,  and  they  should  be  in  constant 
touch  with  one  another.  In  the  various  branches  of  philanthropic 
work,  especially  in  the  care  of  the  sick  and  in  personal  intercourse 
with  the  poor,  it  would  be  impossible  to  do  without  the  active 
assistance  of  willing  individuals  or  associations ;  but  the  finances 
and   administration   might    be   centralized    under   the    community, 


KOBATSCH.  281 

if  only  to  attain  by  this  concentration  a  reduction  in  the  cost  of 
administration,  which  is  at  present  considerable.  In  other  cities — 
smaller,  to  be  sure,  than  Vienna — a  more  or  less  cordial  co-operation 
between  private  and  public  charities  has  been  attained,  generally 
with  gratifying  results. 

But  this  step,  we  think,  must  be  preceded  by  a  closer  union  of  all 
charitable  societies  which  have  a  similar  object  (as  nursing,  starting 
and  supporting  cheap  eating-houses,  intelligence  offices,  providing 
shelter).  Only  if  the  societies  are  thus  organized  can  co-operation 
exist  in  a  community.  For  there  is  no  other  result  of  our  social 
energy  which  can  and  must  be  so  uniform  and  at  the  same  time  so 
greatly  diversified  as  charity;  uniform  to  avoid  duplication  of  work, 
diversified  to  obtain  as  quick  and  as  thorough  work  as  possible. 

Several  German  and  Austrian  cities  have  succeeded  in  thus  central- 
izing poor  relief.  We  mention  the  Dresden  central  office  of  the 
Union  of  Charitable  Associations,  1883;  also  the  union  of  the  com- 
mittee for  poor  and  sick  relief  at  Mayence  with  the  charitable  socie- 
ties of  that  city,  made  on  June  17,  1884.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this 
union  to  "  promote  an  equal  distribution  of  alms,  and  to  guard  against 
fraud,  to  check  begging  and  vagrancy  of  strangers,  and  to  prevent 
the  surreptitious  acquisition  of  domicile  relief."  The  organization 
and  direction  of  business  is  managed  about  as  in  the  Austrian  city  of 
Gablonz;  the  mayor  calls  meetings  of  representatives  of  the  dififerent 
societies  for  joint  consultations ;  in  Gablonz,  the  books,  question 
blanks  and  registers  of  the  union  are  kept  together  with  the  cit)^ 
books,  blanks  and  registers. 

Vienna's  poor  relief  should  be  reformed,  i,  by  a  common  organiza- 
tion of  the  countless  charitable  societies  and  small  societies,*  together 
with  constant  individual  effort  for  the  poor — poor  relief  proper; 
2,  by  an  intimate  connection  between  the  societies  so  organized  and 
public  poor  administration. 

Most  of  the  Austrians  and  Germans  who  write  on  the  subject  of  the 
poor  speak  against  bureaucratic,  and  for  a  more  personal  treatment 
of  charity,  and  this  treatment  would  be  the  natural  result  of  a  more 
individualized  poor  relief. f  On  the  other  hand,  these  writers  repeat 

*  Their  number  increased  from  216  in  1882  to  2S0  in  18S6,  with  an  expendi- 
ture of  1,128,167  florins  ;  and  to  375  in  1890,  with  an  expenditure  of  1,153,326 
florins. 

tCf.  Loning  in  Schonberg's  Handbuch,  3rd  ed.,  Part  III,  p.  966;  Mischler, 
Die  Artnenpjlege  in  den  osterreickiscken  Stddlen,  Vienna,  1891,  p.  88  ;  Sedlaczek 
and  others. 


282 


PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 


emphatically  that  under  all  circumstances  the  state  (or  country) 
must  assume  control  of  communal  poor  relief  and  the  supervision  of 
private  poor  relief. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  so  far  as  A.  Wagner,  who  says  that  the 
obligation  of  the  communes  to  aid  is  a  kind  of  communism,  because 
they  have  no  influence  whatsoever  over  the  individuals  who  are  a 
drain  upon  them  ;  and  he  demands  for  the  communes  a  right  of  vetoing 
improvident  marriages,  and  recommends  the  introduction  of  obliga- 
tory savings  (^Zwangshilfscassen~)  instead  of  poor  relief.  Our  plans 
of  reform  aim  in  the  first  place  at  a  revision  of  the  settlement  law ; 
that  is,  we  desire  neither  the  principle  of  settlement  nor  of  two  or 
five  years'  residence,  but  unification  of  the  poor  administration  and 
a  general  poor  tax. 

At  the  close  of  this  critical  review  of  the  Vienna  poor  relief  system 
may  be  placed  two  tables  compiled  from  the  Vienna  statistical 
annuals;  the  figures,  despite  their  not  being  exact,  show  beyond 
doubt,  first,  that  in  the  course  of  the  last  decade  the  expenditure  of 
Vienna  for  poor  relief  has  increased  much  less  rapidly,  indeed  often 
more  slowly  than  the  population;  secondly,  that  the  burden  of  this 
expenditure  has  even  decreased  somewhat  in  proportion;  thirdly, 
that  some  symptoms  point  to  the  conclusion  that  Vienna  has  become, 
if  not  richer,  at  least  not  very  much  poorer. 


Number  of  vacant 

Year. 

Population. 

Amount  of  mort- 
gages. 

Amount  of 
interest. 

dwellings,  wh 
rent  for  400 
500  florins. 

ich 

jr 

Unpaid  taxes. 

Florins. 

Florins. 

18S2 

725.935 

237.257.000 

,     records 

5,617,651 

1883 

736.773 

236,677,000 

records 

4,500,213 

1884 

747.772 

245.399.000 

1    wanting. 

wanting. 

4.T3i,946 

1885 

75^.935 

249.733.000 

L 

4,431.745 

1886 

770,265 

256,900,000 

26,900,000  fl. 

1416 

4,546,000 

1887 

781,764 

267,900,000 

30,860,000 

2091 

5,184,500 

1888 

793.434 

280,000,000 

31,000,000 

2000 

5,067,100 

1889 

805,278 

291,000,000 

30,400,000 

2306 

5,410,600 

1890 

817,299 

299,000,000 

32,800,000 

2975 

6,218,400 

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V  -«  2 


284  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

CHARITY  IN  TURKEY. 

T.  FLAKKY,  IMPERIAL  OTTOMAN  COMMISSIONER-GENERAL  TO 
COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION. 

Invited  to  assist  the  sessions  of  the  World's  Auxiliary  Congress  of 
Charities,  Correction  and  Philanthropy,  and  honored  with  member- 
ship in  this  assembly,  composed  of  so  many  eminent  persons  from  all 
parts  of  the  civilized  world,  I  beg  your  indulgence  to  say  a  few  words 
on  this  important,  I  must  say  the  most  important,  question  of  the 
day,  from  both  the  moral  and  social  point  of  view, 

I  feel  embarrassed  by  my  lack  of  confidence,  and  shall  not  attempt 
to  submit  to  this  honored  assemblage  new  and  practical  ideas  or 
theories  on  a  subject  so  familiar  to  you  all.  The  charities  and 
philanthropic  institutions  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  are  not  well  known 
to  our  Western  neighbors,  hence  my  great  desire  to  say  a  few  words 
on  the  subject. 

Let  me  first  of  all  congratulate  you  upon  this  first  attempt  to  bring 
together  men  from  all  nations  to  discuss  subjects  relating  to  humanity. 
The  aim  of  humanity  must  be  not  only  equal,  but  also  relative  easi- 
ness of  life  for  everybody;  otherwise  a  great  portion  of  mankind, 
deprived  of  the  vital  necessities  of  life,  will  either  be  lost  in  crime  or 
will  strive  to  procure  through  improper  means  what  is  refused  to 
them  by  hard  circumstances  and  by  their  fellow-citizens.  Certainly 
many  a  criminal  is  born  with  a  predisposition  to  crime,  but  in  coun- 
tries where  the  comforts  of  life  are  easily  procurable,  the  number  of 
criminals  is  always  far  less  than  where  pauperism  prevails.  But  even 
where  economical  laws  are  best  observed,  some  unexpected  circum- 
stances, such  as  disasters,  international  wars,  commercial  and  finan- 
cial crises,  bring  all  to  naught.  The  intellectual  inequality  between 
members  of  the  same  community  eventually  reduces  one  portion  of 
it  to  the  depths  of  misery,  and  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  favored 
members  to  save  the  rest — to  restore  them,  if  not  completely,  at 
least  as  nearly  as  possible,  to  their  former  prosperity.  Surely  many 
a  horrible  crime  might  be  prevented  by  this  intervention  of  society, 
by  relieving  the  miseries  of  the  poor  and  keeping  them  in  the  bounds 
of  human  comforts,  ideas  and  manners.  .So  long  as  there  are  guar- 
antees enough  for  the  relief  of  disasters  and  misfortunes,  society  has 
nothing  to  do  ;  but  the  helpless  are  worthy  of  its  care,  and  the  bar- 
barian device,   Vcb  victis,  must  be  forever  forgotten. 


FLAKKY.  285 

A  well-extended  and  well-combined  system  of  charities  does  much 
to  prevent  crimes  and  the  necessity  for  correction ;  but  correction 
may  also  be  considered  as  a  charity.  Correction  means  the  separa- 
tion of  the  actually  degraded  members  of  society  from  their  more 
law-abiding  neighbors,  a  means  which  relieves  the  latter  from  a  bad 
neighborhood  and  the  influences  of  vice.  A  good  system  of  correc- 
tion, besides  doing  *its  work  as  a  means  of  punishment,  succeeds  in 
many  cases  in  making  good  and  honest  citizens  of  bad  men,  by  sub- 
jecting them  to  its  rules  based  on  civil  law. 

To  prevent  humanity  from  losing  its  moral  virtues  because  of  its 
material  misfortunes,  and  to  help  those  who  have  already  lost  these 
qualities  to  regain  them,  is  what  we  call  philanthropy.  These  con- 
siderations show  why,  in  my  mind,  I  see  such  an  intimate  relation 
between  these  two  words,  charity  and  correction,  and  how  the  two 
lead  to  this  idea  of  philanthropy,  which  is  the  motto  of  this  distin- 
guished assemblage. 

I  must  apologize  for  the  length  of  these  introductory  remarks  and 
proceed  at  once  to  explain  briefly  the  state  of  charitable  institutions 
now  existing  in  my  country.  In  Turkey  charity  has  always  been 
considered  as  a  public  and  private  duty.  Two  essential  elements  of 
Turkish  life  give  to  it  a  prominent  position  amongst  human  institu- 
tions. These  two  elements  are,  as  you  all  know,  the  time-honored 
customs  of  the  Turkish  race  and  the  principles  of  the  Mohammedan 
religion.  The  Turkish  tribes  have  always  mixed  charity  with  hospi- 
tality. The  stranger,  be  he  poor  or  rich,  coming  to  a  tent  to  seek 
shelter  or  refuge,  is  always  welcomed  and  furnished  with  all  means 
*  of  subsistence  and  comfort.  These  habits  still  characterize  the 
nomadic  tribes  and  also  the  more  stable  population,  amongst  whom 
every  village,  besides  caring  for  its  own  poor,  possesses  a  special 
house  where  strangers  are  received,  lodged  and  nourished  without 
any  cost. 

As  to  the  Mussulman  religion,  it  is  universally  known  that  the 
relief  of  and  the  respect  for  the  poor  have  been  raised  by  it  to  the 
rank  of  a  state  institution. 

Mohammed  belonged  to  a  tribe  in  Mecca  governed  by  a  class  of 
wealthy  merchants,  who  formed  a  real  plutocracy  amongst  the  Arab 
nation.  Poverty  was  of  course  despised  by  these  men,  and  it  was 
certainly  more  difficult  to  press  upon  them  respect  for  the  poor  than 
any  other  social  or  moral  reform.  Mohammed  succeeded  in  chang- 
ing the  ideas  of  his  people  on  this  matter  as  on  many  others  ;  and  he 


286  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

devoted  all  his  time  to  the  welfare  of  the  growing  Mohammedan 
community,  paying  no  attention  to  his  personal  fortune.  His  motto 
was,  "  Poverty  is  my  glory,"  (^Al fakree  fahry).  His  great  endeavor 
was  to  establish  a  perfect  equality  between  the  poor  and  the  rich.  He 
succeeded,  and  the  result  is  that  to-day  Turkey,  like  every  other 
Mohammedan  community,  is  one  of  the  most  typical  democratic 
countries,  without  any  kind  of  nobility  or  social  distinction  except 
such  as  is  conferred  by  the  state  for  the  needs  of  administration. 

One  of  the  five  principles  of  Islam  is  the  Zekat,  which  is  a  tax  on 
the  wealthy  class  for  the  maintenance  of  the  poor.     In  times  of  con-       *i 
quest,  the  fifth  part  of  the  spoils  was  sent  to  the  Beit-ul-mal,  or    ' 
public  treasury,  and  devoted  to  the  same  purpose  by  the  state  officials. 
Zekat,  a  regular  public  tax  in  the  first  century  of  the  Khalifate,  has 
ever  since  been  regarded   by  all  Mussulmans  as  a  religious  duty. 
Every  rich  Mussulman  who  possesses  articles  of  luxury  gives  a  yearly 
amount,  in  proportion  to  his  wealth,  to  the  poor,  and  so  fulfils  his 
obligation  for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  an  offering  which  is  said  in  the 
Koran  to  be  the  form,  of  prayer  most  agreeable  to  the  Almighty. 
Personal  effects,  money,  goods  used  in  commerce,  and  the  orna- 
mental articles  used  by  ladies  are  of  course  excepted  from  the  charge 
oi Zekat,  as  they  do  not  imply  a  luxury  which  may  cause  grievances^ 
to  the  poorer  classes.     My  countrymen  are  all  under  the  influence  of    | 
these  national  habits  and  religious  ideas,  and  hence  a  man  who  is    1 
indifferent  to  the  misery  of  the  poor  is  considered  a  monster  devoid     j 
of  any  humane  sentiments  and  subject  to  the  hatred  of  his  fellow-     j 
citizens. 

There  is  no  uniform  law  in  Turkey  giving  to  the  state  poor  relief 
the  features  of  a  regular  institution.     The  cause  of  this  must  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  there  poverty  has  a  thoroughly  different  mean- 
ing from  that  of  other  countries.     In  Turkey  the  possession  of  land 
is  quite  evenly  distributed,  and  nearly  everybody  has  his  share, 
small  or  large,  in  the  national  domain.     In  fact  every  man  is  a  land-\ 
owner,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  find  one  who  has  not  a  parcel  of"! 
land  somewhere.     Even  such  men  as  are  known  to  be  poor  have/ 
their  own  homes  and  need  only  the  necessary  means  of  subsistence! 
No  one  has  to  sleep  in  the  open  air  when  night  comes.     There  are 
no  homeless  people  in  Turkey.     Consequently  there  was  no  neces- 
sity of  having  a  kind  of  poor  law  giving  shelter  to  the  needy,  and 
only   a   very   few   destitute   people   are   directly  cared  for  by  the 
national  government  in  places  specially  assigned  to  that  purpose. 


i 


FLAKKY.  »  287 

The  consequence  is  that  there  is  no  pauperism,  no  regular  and  per- 
manent class  of  poor  in  Turkey.  Therefore  what  is  most  needed  is 
special  means  of  alleviating  temporary  need  or  accidental  suffering. 
The  destitute  are  provided  with  the  means  of  subsistence  without 
putting  them  in  regularly  established  poorhouses,  thus  prejudicing 
their  standing  among  their  friends  and  acquaintances.  Govern- 
mental relief  for  the  poor  is  carried  on  by  different  channels  and  with 
an  efficiency  truly  remarkable.  The  imperial  family,  especially  his 
Majesty  the  Sultan,  expends  a  considerable  part  of  his  revenues  for 
this  purpose.  When  the  sovereign  or  the  members  of  the  imperial 
family  go  out,  money  is  always  distributed  to  the  poor  assembled  on 
the  street.  A  portion  of  the  special  cash  fund  of  his  Majesty  and 
that  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Civil  List  is  expended  for  persons  who 
apply  to  imperial  magnanimity  to  alleviate  their  needs.  A  special 
fund  is  allowed  in  the  palace  to  help  such  of  the  poor  as  present 
regularly  attested  petitions  to  the  sovereign.  The  marshal  of  the 
palace  is  charged  with  the  management  of  this  sum.  The  first  secre- 
tary of  the  palace  also  has  lately  been  placed  in  charge  of  another 
regular  fund  instituted  by  his  Imperial  Majesty  Abdul  Hamid  II. 
In  case  of  special  emergencies  caused  by  accidents,  such  as  fires, 
earthquakes,  famines,  and  other  public  calamities,  the  Sultan  always 
takes  the  initiative  in  the  distribution  of  succor  to  the  needy,  and 
invariably  he  is  the  first  to  come  forward  and  assist  to  heal  the 
wounds  of  the  injured  and  alleviate  the  misery  of  the  helpless.  At 
the  recent  earthquakes  which  destroyed  a  great  part  of  the  district 
of  Malattiah,  all  the  houses  in  villages  and  in  cities  were  rebuilt  by 
the  governnient  without  any  cost  to  the  people,  and  thus  this  great 
pubUc^alarnit}Meftjio_tra£e_be^  Even  in  districts  far  from  Con- 

stantinople many  needy  people  have  regular  allowances  paid  to  them 
from  the  privy  purse  of  the  sovereign. 

The  government  treasury  also  pays  annually  large  amounts  of 
money  for  the  needy,  and  a  special  pension  fund  is  destined  for  this 
purpose.  Pension  funds  for  the  families  of  all  the  civil  and  military 
servants  of  the  empire  were  first  instituted  during  the  reign  of  his 
Majesty.  This  has  instituted  a  financial  power  in  the  country, 
leaving  no  poor  people  among  the  classes  that  were  once  dependent 
on  the  salary  paid  by  the  government  to  the  members  of  lamilies. 
The  poor  are  allowed  a  certain  sum  monthly  by  the  government  ^  vV 
treasury,  on  the  presentation  of  official  certificates  duly  attested  and 
sworn  to  by  some  reputable  citizens  of  the  ward  where  the  applicant 
resides. 


,Yt/ 


^ 


X 


288  «  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF   PAUPERISM. 

In  addition  to  all  these  institutions,  his  Imperial  Majesty  led  in 
the  establishment  of  a  great  home  in  Constantinople  for  destitute 
people  of  all  religions  and  denominations.  This  home  for  the  poor 
will  contain  workshops,  places  of  worship,  schools,  etc.,  in  one  word, 
all  that  is  required  for  the  social  and  moral  progress  of  the  inmates. 
The  erection  of  the  required  buildings  for  this  purpose  has  been  car- 
\  ried  on  with  great  energy  and  enthusiasm,  and  when  completed  and 
equipped,  it  will  be  a  magnificent  addition  to  the  humanitarian  estab- 
lishments of  the  world,  and  a  great  credit  to  its  originator,  the  pres- 
ent sovereign  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

J  The  Vakou/s,  namely  "  pious  institutions,"  also  undertake  a  great 
part  of  the  poor  relief  work,  Vakozi/s  are  real  estates,  the  incomes 
from  the  rent  of  which  are  devoted,  un3er~ceFtain  prescribed  rules, 
to  different  charities,  such  as  the  maintenance  of  places  of  worship, 
schools,  public  fountains,  hospitals,  etc.  These  foundations  have 
been  mostly  established  by  Ottoman  sovereigns,  while  some  of  them 
are  the  gifts  of  private  men,  but  all  are  under  the  charge  of  the  Im- 
perial Ministry  of  Pious  Foundations — Evkof.  In  some  cases 
Vakou/s  are  under  the  control  of  the  eldest  son  or  the  head  of 
the  family  of  the  man  who  is  the  founder  of  the  institution.  Vakotifs 
provide  for  the  needs  of  the  poor  in  different  ways :  first,  by  giving 
life  pensions  or  rations  to  them  ;  second,  by  the  Tmaret  system, 
which  is  rather  peculiar  to  Turkey.  Tmarets  are  large  places  where, 
daily,  cooking  is  done  by  the  Vakotif  iiVidi  given  without  cost  to  the 
people  who  apply  for  it.  Everybody  can  go  there  at  the  appointed 
times  and  receive  his  share  of  the  day's  fare  without  any  formality. 
Constantinople  contains  more  than  two  hundred  of  these  places,  and 
every  important  provincial  city  can  boast  of  many  places  of  this 
kind.  The  poor  of  a  ward  can  have  their  daily  meals  in  these 
Tmarets,  and  poor  students,  especially  those  who  are  studying  in 
Medresses  (theological  schools),  can  pursue  their  studies  without 
any  appreciable  cost  for  board,  being  lodged  in  the  schools  and 
nourished  by  the  Tmaret. 

As  to  actual  private  charity  in  Turkey,  it  is  done  on  a  grand  scale. 
The  people  think  it  a  moral  duty  to  give  alms,  and  this  tendency, 
beside  leaving  no  room  for  great  miseries,  has  even  the  effect  of 
inducing  some  idle'  men  to  beg  favors  from  others.  Every  family 
gives  the  surplus  of  its  daily  food,  with  old  clothes  and  other  house- 
hold and  personal  articles  which  are  not  needed,  to  the  poor.  Thus 
many  poor  families  obtain  all  that  is  necessary  by  the  generosity  of 


FLAKKY.  289 

their  neighbors.  Wealthy  individuals  often  take  upon  themselves 
the  marriage  of  a  poor  girl  who  is  acquainted  with  their  families. 
Cases  are  not  rare  in  which  a  small  house,  with  all  the  necessary- 
household  goods,  is  presented  to  the  bride,  and  they  even  procure 
a  situation  for  the  bridegroom,  thus  enabling  him  to  support  his 
wife.  Often  the  residents  of  a  ward  collect  money  to  help  to  marry 
the  poor  girls  of  their  neighborhood,  and  so  no  girl  is  left  unmarried, 
when  she  is  of  age,  on  account  of  poverty. 

The  hospitality  practised  in  Turkish  cities  is  also  very  peculiar. 
Sometimes  a  whole  family  goes  to  another  family's  house  and 
remains  there  as  guests  for  days  or  even  weeks.  The  poor  are  not 
despised,  and  a  poor  man  acquainted  with  a  rich  family  can  bring  there 
his  own  people  and  remain  some  time  as  guests.  This  is,  of  course, 
a  great  alleviation  to  the  poor  man's  purse,  and  enables  him  to  enjoy 
more  easiness  of  life  when  he  stays  in  the  house  of  his  rich  relative 
or  friend. 

The  above  considerations  show  why  pauperism,  as  understood  in 
some  other  countries,  is  an  unknown  thing  in  Turkey.  That  is  a 
good  thing,  for  in  the  absence  of  pauperism  the  extreme  hatred  so 
natural  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  is  avoided,  giving  place  to 
more  geniality  and  true  brotherhood  between  citizens  of  all  situations, 
classes  and  positions.  May  these  hatreds  and  distinctions,  which  are 
the  principal  sources  of  actual  embarrassment  in  social  questions,  and  \ 
which  are  the  result  of  the  supposed  superiority  of  the  moneyed 
class  over  the  poor,  never  arise  in  the  land  of  Turks,  but  may  our  old 
and  time-honored  customs  flourish  more  and  more,  combined  with 
the  influence  of  occidental  civilization  which  is  invading  our  land  and  j  ^ 
totally  transforming  it — to  the  better,  we  mayjiope. 


PROCEEDINGS  AND  DISCUSSIONS. 


First  Session,  June  12,  1893,  8  p.  m. 

The  first  session  of  the  section  on  the  Public  Treatment  of  Pau- 
perism, of  the  International  Congress  of  Charities,  Correction  and 
Philanthropy,  was  a  general  session,  and  was  called  to  order  at  8 
o'clock  by  Mr.  F.  H.  Wines,  vice-president  of  the  Congress,  who 
introduced  as  chairman  of  the  section,  Mr.  Ansley  Wilcox,  of 
Buffalo,  New  York. 

Mr.  Wilcox,  upon  taking  the  chair,  spoke  briefly  of  the  import- 
ance, in  the  United  States,  of  the  study  of  the  public  treatment  of 
pauperism,  and  commented  upon  the  lack  of  system  in  state  and 
municipal  relief;  also  upon  the  absence  of  reliable  general  statistics 
of  pauperism,  which  is  in  part  due  to  the  variations  in  the  methods  of 
relief  pursued  by  the  local  authorities.  He  expressed  the  hope  that 
the  presentation  of  European  theories  and  their  discussion  by  this 
Congress  might  lead  to  the  development  of  an  intelligent  American 
system  of  poor  law  administration,  which  could  be  put  in  the  form 
of  a  statute  and  generally  adopted  in  this  country. 

The  first  paper  of  the  evening  was  read  by  Mr.  Robert  Treat 
Paine,  of  Boston,  on  Pauperism  in  Great  Cities. 

The  chairman  called  upon  Mr.  Henry  C.  Burdett,  of  London, 
England,  to  discuss  the  paper  read  by  Mr.  Paine.  He  responded 
jn  the  following  words  : 

Mr.  Burdett. — What  strikes  us  English  about  Mr.  Paine  and  his 
methods  is  this,  that  he  has  gone  to  the  root  of  the  problem,  and  has 
furnished  us  the  means  of  solving  it,  if  we  will  only  acquit  ourselves 
like  men  and  women,  by  giving  "  love  and  personal  service."  In  one 
of  the  districts  of  London,  a  district  of  20,000  people,  there  has  been 
established  an  association  known  as  the  Friendly  Workers'  Asso- 
ciatibn.  It  is  managed  by  a  committee  consisting  of  representatives 
of  all  religious  denominations,  under  the  chairmanship  of  a  layman. 
The  object  of  forming  this  pan-denominational  committee  has  been 
to  utilize  to  the  full  the  forces  represented  by  the  twin  sisters  of  love 
and  personal  service.  The  method  pursued  has  been  to  take  a 
census  of  the  people  in  the  district,  and  then  we  have  gone  to  work 


I 


I 


i 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  29 1 

upon  the  facts,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  we  have  successfully  solved  the 
difficulties,  so  far  as  that  district  is  concerned. 

But  that  is  not  all.  Another  attempt  has  been  made,  which  is  now 
being  worked  out  under  the  heads  of  all  religious  bodies  in  the 
metropolis,  to  solve  the  social  problem.  Our  idea  is  to  get  London 
divided  into  Friendly  Workers  of  manageable  proportions,  and  then, 
by  the  aid  of  pan-denominational  committees  and  friendly  workers, 
to  stir  up  and  awaken  throughout  the  metropolis  the  feeling,  that  it 
is  not  so  much  the  duty  of  the  aggregate  mass  to  solve  this  problem, 
as  it  is  the  privilege  of  individuals  to  give  themselves  to  the  work, 
and  to  bring  by  this  personal  service  something  far  more  valuable 
and  beyond  all  price,  the  gift  of  oneself,  if  only  for  a  limited  period, 
that  this  problem  may  be  solved  once  and  for  all. 

It  is  said  that  London,  with  her  six  million  people,  is  too  large  to 
handle.  My  answer  is  that  any  one  who  holds  that  opinion  is 
unworthv  of  civilization  as  it  should  be  in  this  nineteenth  century. 
Surely,  if  our  sires  were  able  to  deal  with  the  problems  which  beset 
them  in  their  day,  we,  their  descendants,  with  our  improved  methods, 
would  not  acquit  ourselves  like  men,  or  be  worthy  of  our  sires,  if  we 
were  to  allow  any  aggregate  mass  to  make  us  hesitate  or  pause  in 
the  effort  to  solve  this  problem. 

Professor  C.  R.  Henderson,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  read 
a  paper  on  Pjiblic  Relief  and  Private  Charity. 

Second  Session,  June  13,  1893. 

Mr.  Ansley  Wilcox,  of  Buffalo,  presided.  Mr.  John  H.  Finley, 
president  of  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  Illinois,  acted  as  secretary. 

Mr.  Oscar  Craig,  president  of  State  Board  of  Charities  of  New 
York,  read  a  paper  entitled,  American  Administration  of  Charity 
in  Ptiblic  Institutions. 

The  Chairman. — The  next  paper  is  by  Baron  von  Reitzenstein, 
of  Germany,  on  The  International  Treatment  of  the  Poor  Question. 
It  will  be  read  by  the  secretar)'.    The  secretary  then  read  the  paper. 

The  chairman  invited  Miss  Catherine  H.  Spence,  of  Australia, 
to  address  the  section. 

Miss  Spence. — In  South  Australia,  where  I  went  in  1839,  there  was 
a  range  of  wooden  buildings,  called  "Immigration  Square,"  where 
immigrants  received  room  and  food  for  a  fortnight,  until  employ- 
ment could  be  found  for  them.  The  duty  which  the  state  owes  to 
the  poor  has  never  since  then  been  lost  sight  of  in  South  Australia. 
The  government  takes  the  care  of  the  poor  upon  itself,  and  in 
order  to  diminish  the  number  of  those  wholly  dependent  upon  insti- 
tutional charity  in  almshouses  and  asylums,  it  has  organized  a  system 


292  PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 

of  outdoor  relief  which,  I  think,  is  unique  and  healthful,  and  which, 
so  far  as  I  know,  has  been  wisely  administered.  If  a  Widow  is  left 
with  young  children  and  without  means,  instead  of  taking  her  children 
from  her  and  placing  them  in  district  schools,  as  would  be  done  in 
England,  the  South  Australian  government  aids  her  with  rations. 
She  is  supposed  to  maintain  herself  and  one  child ;  for  herself  and 
two  children  she  has  one  ration ;  with  three,  one  and  a^half.  The 
rations  are  not  in  money,  but  consist  of  food,  bread,  meat,  tea,  sugar, 
soap,  salt  and  rice.  Many  respectable  families  are  brought  up  in 
this  way,  the  mother  doing  what  she  can  to  earn  her  children  a 
living.  By  this  means  fewer  children  are  thrown  entirely  upon  state 
maintenance  than  in  any  other  province  in  Australia. 

In  regard  to  the  old  people,  we  have  a  "  Destitute  Board," 
appointed  by  the  government,  which  says  to  a  son  or  daughter, 
"  Keep  your  old  father  and  mother  and  we  will  allow  you  one 
ration."  Consequently  we  have  fewer  old  men  and  women  in  the 
almshouses  than  any  place  in  the  world.  But  this  system  needs  to 
be  watched.  It  has  the  effect  of  reducing  the  number  of  those  who 
become  entirely  pauperized  so  long  as  an  old  man  and  woman  can 
keep  a  house  above  their  head ;  but  when  they  are  past  work  they 
will  get  a  ration  and  a  half.  We  have  no  able-bodied  men  in  the 
"destitute  asylum"  at  all;  they  may  have  a  night's  lodging,  that  is 
all  ;  we  have  only  in  our  destitute  asylums  old  people  who  are  blind 
or  infirm,  whom  I  should  like  to  see  in  a  better  place.  I  don't  think 
it  is  a  happy  thing  for  old  people  to  be  always  by  themselves,  with- 
out the  patter  of  little  feet  or  the  stir  of  life.  I  do  think  there  might 
be  some  way  of  boarding  out  old  people,  such  as  I  read  of  in  a  little 
pamphlet  I  got  here.  There  is  a  movement  in  South  Australia  to 
get  a  better  home  for  the  respectable  poor  than  what  is  called  our 
destitute  asylum. 

In  regard  to  children,  they  are  removed  from  institutions  and 
placed  in  homes,  generally  country  homes.  The  government  pays 
for  their  keeping,  and  furnishes  registers  of  inspection  (voluntary 
inspection),  thus  giving  to  hundreds  and  thousands  of  ladies  all  over 
Australia  an  opportunity  to  visit  these  places. 

I  know  there  is  a  great  prejudice  against  outdoor  relief;  the 
fashion  in  England  is  to  give  no  outdoor  relief;  they  say,  "  If  people 
want  to  live,  let  them  go  into  the  workhouses."  I  do  not  know  that 
it  is  right,  if  our  brothers  and  sisters  have  fallen,  to  thrust  them  with 
others  amongst  whom  they  should  not  properly  be.  I  have  read  in 
the  reports  of  bureaus  of  beneficence  that  temporary  help  is  given  in 
time  of  trouble.  I  have  known  families  in  dire  distress  to  apply  for 
a  night's  lodging  who  would  never  ask  for  a  cent ;  I  have  known  a 
mother  to  pawn  her  wedding-ring  who  would  not  ask  for  a  cent. 
But  all  official  charges  must  be  regulated  ;  therefore  it  is  well  that 
private  benevolence  should  aid  in  that  way.  But  the  objection  to 
private  benevolence  is  that  the  money  all  comes  out  of  a  few  pockets  ; 
that  thousands  of  women  and  men,  who  can  afford  to  pay  well  for  the 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  293 

support  of  the  poor,  escape.  You  have  here  your  poor-rates,  and 
you  say  the  rates  are  not  sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  the  infirm 
and  poor,  but  that  they  must  be  supplemented  by  the  work  of  active 
men  and  women.  This  thought  was  especially  borne  upon  my  mind 
when  I  attended  the  Australia  Charity  Conference  in  Melbourne, 
where  they  have  no  poor-rate,  but  regard  private  benevolence  as 
quite  sufficient.  There,  naturally,  a  few  people  support  all  the  hos- 
pitals. Why  should  not  everybody  help  to  support  these  hospitals? 
Therefore  I  approve  of  the  rate  system,  I  believe  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  state  to  care  for  its  poor  and  afflicted  and  infirm  ;  but  it  should 
not  exonerate  the  private  people  from  giving  their  services.  By  and 
by  there  will  be  no  use  for  so  much  charity,  because  there  will  be 
more  justice.  Baron  von  Reitzenstein,  in  his  observations  upon  the 
difficulty  of  public  poor  relief  on  account  of  political  methods, 
touched  upon  what  seems  to  me  the  essential  weakness  of  America, 
and  I  have  come  to  America  for  the  purpose  of  advocating  a  reform 
in  your  electoral  methods,  to  inaugurate  improvements  in  such 
methods. 

Mr.  Robert  Treat  Paine,  president  of  Associated  Charities, 
Boston. — I  have  listened  with  great  interest  to  the  remarks  of  Miss 
Spence,  and  I  wish  I  could  ask  one  question.  What  are  the  observed 
results  upon  these  families  of  children,  with  their  widowed  mothers, 
where  relief  is  given  in  this  way  ?  I  should  suppose  that  the  fact 
must  be  known  to  all  the  neighbors,  so  that  the  children  of  the  family 
are,  as  it  were,  marked  as  paupers. 

Miss  Spence. — Singularly  enough,  it  is  not  considered  a  disgrace 
for  a  woman  to  take  rations,  or  medical  assistance;  if  the  father  of 
the  family  is  ill.  It  is  regarded  as  a  right.  I  think  that  to  help  a 
woman  to  bring  up  her  family  in  their  own  home  is  the  best  thing 
that  can  be  done  for  her.  But  it  is  felt  to  be  a  disgrace  to  go  to  the 
asylums.  They  feel  that  it  is  not  right  to  let  an  old  father  or  mother 
go  to  an  asylum  or  almshouse. 

Mr.  Paine. — I  agree  that  the  family  should  be  kept  together,  but 
I  doubt  whether  any  method  is  wise  which  proclaims  to  all  the  boys 
and  girls  in  the  neighborhood  that  any  family  is,  by  reason  of  the 
death  of  the  father,  brought  down  so  low  that  they  must  be  in  daily 
receipt  of  public  relief.  Is  there  not  a  better  method  ?  I  cannot  but 
think  there  is  just  a  little  bit  of  that  wicked  element  in  boys  that  will 
lead  them  to  taunt  and  jeer  at  their  playmates  under  the  circum- 
stances mentioned.  My  question  is  whether,  if  public  relief  must  be 
given,  it  ought  not  be  given  in  a  more  private  and  secret  way;  more 
in  the  form  of  a  pension,  or  a  monthly  allowance,  with  overseers 
employed,  so  that  the'  neighbors  may  not  know  that  the  wagon  of 
shame  stops  in  front  of  certain  homes.  Why  can  it  not  be  done 
quietly  ?  I  wish  to  seize  this  opportunity  to  find  out  how  far  we 
might  go,  and  whether  the  cause  of  the  widow  and  of  the  children 
cannot  be  taken  care  of  in  a  better  way,  a  more  friendly  way,  with 
the  neighbors  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  fact,  and  perhaps  with  the 


294 


PUBLIC    TREATMENT    OF    PAUPERISM. 


children  not  knowing  that  they  are  aided ;  whether  the  rehef  might 
not  be  taken  from  some  church,  or  by  some  individual,  and  given  in 
a  quiet,  tender,  considerate  way,  until  the  time  comes  when  the  chil- 
dren could  be  self-supporting. 

Mr.  P.  W.  Ayres,  secretary  of  Associated  Charities,  Cincinnati. — I, 
too,  would  like  to  ask  if  there  is  not  such  a  way,  and  I  would  like  to  tell 
Mr.  Paine  that  in  our  city  we  have  kept  to  the  idea,  which  I  supposed 
they  had  in  Boston,  of  securing  private  pensions  from  private  sources 
for  certain  cases  of  this  kind,  where  there  is  a  widow  with  several 
children  who  ought  to  be  kept  with  the  mother.  We  have  now  a 
certain  amount  of  pension  money  in  hand.  We  have  adopted  this 
system  within  the  past  few  years  to  keep  the  mother  and  children 
together  by  means  of  private  pensions.  We  do  it  in  various  ways ; 
sometimes  we  go  to  a  few  wealthy  gentlemen  and  say  that  we  want 
$125  a  year  or  $2  a  week  for  three  years  until  the  boy,  who  is  now 
1 1  years  old,  shall  be  14.  Of  course  we  find  families  in  which  the 
children  are  very  small  and  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  they  are 
self-supporting.  It  is  more  discouraging  when  you  find  children 
from  10  to  12  years  of  age,  but  we  have,  in  answer  to  the  gentleman's 
question,  a  plan  in  Cincinnati  which  has  been  successful  in  some  ten 
or  twelve  cases.  We  have  private  pensions  for  women  and  children  ; 
these  pensions  are  so  administered  by  friendly  visitors  that  the  family 
does  not  know  it  is  an  object  of  charity  ;  but  sometimes  it  is  wise  to 
tell  the  family  so  they  may  not  have  a  feeling  of  fear  lest  they  may 
not  know  where  the  next  meal  is  to  come  from.  There  are  instances 
where  we  have  $125  laid  up  for  a  family  and  they  know  nothing 
about  it. 

Miss  ZiLPHA  D.  Smith,  general  secretary  of  Associated  Charities, 
Boston. — It  is  the  proudest  and  happiest  moment  of  my  life  that  I 
am  able  to  stand  before  you  and  say  that  in  one  district  in  Boston 
(the  seventh  ward)  we  have  solved  ^his  problem,  not  only  for  widows 
and  children,  but  for  all  the  poor.  We  have  provided  private  chanty 
for  every  deserving  poor  person  that  may  ask  for  it.  We  did  not  do 
it  by  looking  about  us  to  see  how  much  was  to  be  done,  by  taking  a 
bird's-eye  view  and  saying,  "'  Here  are  so  many  people  and  it  will 
take  so  much  money "  ;  but  we  saw  the  poor  families  becoming 
demoralized.  They  would  say  to  us,  "  If  my  husband  dies  I  can  go 
up  to  the  pensioners,  and  it  is  no  matter  whether  I  save  anything  or 
not";  so  they  do  not  save.  Now,  as  we  do  not  live  under  a^socialistic 
system,  people,  in  order  to  save  their  character,  must  provide  lor~ 
themselves.  We  should  not  take  away  from  these  widows  and  chil- 
dren the  sense  of  independence,  the  feeling  that  they  themselves  are 
able  to  provide  for  themselves.  So  we  established  a  society  for  home 
saving  ;  but  the  difficulty  was  that  they  did  not  care  to  save.  There 
are  a  great  many  people  who  could  take  care  of  themselves  if  they 
only  thought  they  could,  and  we  are  making  out  a  list  of  these 
people.  It  is  really  marvellous,  when  you  come  to  work  out  the 
problem,  how  few  people  actually  need  help.     A  gentleman  who  had 


Sv^ 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  295 

visited  Switzerland  once  said  that  he  inquired  for  almshouses  there. 
They  said  there  were  none.  He  asked,  "  What  do  your  poor  people 
do?"  "Oh,  they  have  sons  or  daughters  that  take  care  of  them." 
"  Suppose  they  have  no  sons."  "  Well,  they  have  an  uncle  or  an 
aunt  or  a  niece."  "  Suppose  they  have  no  one."  "  Well,  everybody 
has  some  one."  So  it  seems,  when  you  come  to  study  into  it,  in  every 
family  there  is  almost  invariably  a  way  for  them  to  get  along,  either 
by  the  help  of  some  relative  or  by  their  own  individual  efforts.  I 
think  if  others  would  begin  as  we  have  and  say,  "  Now  we  will  take  tr^.--'t 
this  or  that  family,"  taking  the  easy  ones  first,  gradually  we  could 
take  every  single  family  and  make  them  independent.  Then  your 
people  would  begin  to  do  as  ours  have  and  join  a  Home  Savings 
Society,  and  you  would  find  that  they  will  soon  have  their  twenty  or  ^ 
twenty-five  dollars  saved,  and  they  will  take  a  proud  pleasure  in  it.  ^  ^i- 
I  know  that  we  have  a  number  of  families  who  own  their  own  houses 
out  of  town  and  enjoy  themselves  in  their  homes,  and  when  they 
come  in  to  see  me  they  look  just  like  my  visitors ;  I  open  my  eyes 
when  they  walk  into  the  office,  and  I  think  "  It  is  a  visitor,"  and  I 
look  up  and  find  they  are  my  old  poor  people. 

Mr.  J.  R.  Brackett,  of  Baltimore. — It  seems  to  me,  in  listening  to 
this  very  interesting  discussion,  that  there  is  entirely  another  side  to 
the  question.  I  do  not  believe  that  to  take  money  from  the  public 
treasury  helps  in  any  way  to  bring  the  two  classes  together,  the 
prosperous  and  the  poor.  Where  you  get  hold  of  a  rich  man  and 
give  him  an  opportunity  to  take  his  money  from  his  pocket  and  help 
some  poor  struggling  being,  you  do  bring  the  classes  together ;  and 
it  looks  like  a  great  pity  not  to  do  this. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Walk,  general  secretary  of  the  Society  for  Organizing 
Charity,  Philadelphia. — I  would  be  extremely  sorry  if  in  my  city 
widows  and  orphans  were  ever  made  to  feel  that  the  poor  director's 
wagon  would  come  around  and  back  up  to  their  door  and  cause  the 
blu.sh  of  shame  to  arise  to  their  cheek.  We  do  not  want  to  under- 
mine that  idea  of  independence  which  is  the  very  best  thing  among 
our  people,  and  which  has  turned  this  great  wilderness  into  a  garden 
in  the  last  hundred  years. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  keynote,  or  rather  two  keynotes  have 
been  struck,  one  by  Miss  Smith,  when  she  said  that  by  thorough 
investigation  you  will  find  immense  unsuspected  avenues  to  self- 
help,  and  the  other  was  struck  by  Mr.  Paine,  when  he  said  last 
night  that  people  are  determined  to  raise  themselves.  I  can  say, 
with  an  experience  of  fourteen  years  in  Philadelphia,  that  we  have 
in  that  city  of  over  a  million  people  very  few  families  of  widows 
or  children'who,  if  they  had  the  poor  relief,  would  not  take  it.  We 
work  under  one  or  two  specially  favorable  conditions.  One  is  our 
building  association  system  ;  almost  every  poor  workingman  has  a 
share  in  a  building  association.  Another  is  the  wonderful  develop- 
ment of  co-operative  insurance.  Co-operative  insurance  societies 
have  paid  out  $35,000,000  in  the  last  twenty-two  years  ;  they  extend 


296  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

all  over  the  United  States,  and  are  extremely  popular  in  Philadelphia. 
Still  another  is  Girard  College,  which  receives  half-orphan  boys. 
When  a  man  dies  in  Philadelphia,  very  often  one  of  his  sons  is  put 
into  Girard  College,  and  there  the  boy  will  be  given  an  education. 
Then  we  have  the  fund  for  coal  which  amounts  to  $18,000.  We  do 
not  find  it  necessary  to  make  permanent  pensions. 


Third  Session,  June  15,  1893,  10.30  a.  m. 

Mr.  Ansley  Wilcox  presiding;  Mr.  John  H.  Finley  acting 
as  secretary. 

The  Chairman. — The  first  paper  which  will  be  presented  is  by 
Mrs.  May  McCallum,  of  London,  on  the  Etiglish  Poor  Law 
Systevi,  its  Intention  and  Results,  and  will  be  read  by  Miss  Julia 
Leavins.     The  paper  was  read. 

The  Chairman.— The  next  paper  is  by  Mr.  William  Vallance, 
of  London,  clerk  to  the  Whitechapel  Board  of  Guardians,  on  Poor 
Law  Progress  and  Reform,  exemplified  iii  the  Administration  of  an 
East  London  Union,  and  will  be  read  by  Mr.  T.  Guilford  Smith, 
of  Buffalo.     This  paper  was  also  read. 

Mr.  Prosper  van  Geert,  of  Belgium,  read  a  paper  on  Charity 
in  Belgium. 

The  Chairman. — We  thank  Mr.  van  Geert  sincerely  for  the  clear 
account  of  the  subject  which  he  has  given  us.  We  thank  him  for 
coming  here  and  presenting  his  paper  to  us  in  person,  because  it 
adds  greatly  to  the  interest  to  have  it  read  by  the  author. 

We  have  some  time  still  remaining  to  us,  and  I  think  that  the 
pleasantest  course  that  could  be  taken  now  would  be  to  dispense 
with  the  further  reading  of  papers  and  to  call  for  remarks  on  the 
papers  already  presented.  I  shall  therefore  call  upon  Judge  Follett, 
of  Marietta,  Ohio. 

Judge  Follett,  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  of  Ohio. — Many 
persons  say  that  we  ought  to  have  no  outdoor  relief :  but  why?  It 
is  demonstrable  that  in  many  states  (my  own,  I  know,  is  one)  out- 
door relief  increases  pauperism.  But  the  people  seem  to  desire  it, 
and  neither  political  party  dares  make  an  effort  in  the  legislature  to 
abolish  it.  It  may  in  the  end  abolish  itself.  The  trouble  is  that  the 
relieving  officers  are  personally  benefited  by  the  distribution  of 
patronage,  but  the  relief  granted  does  not  benefit  the  public.  I 
visited  a  county  in  Ohio  and  talked  with  the  county  officials  in  regard 
to  a  certain  form  of  relief,  which  I  will  not  describe  here,  but  which 
would  reach  from  100  to  150.  I  said  :  "  Tell  me,  do  you  really  think 
it  benefits  those  who  receive  it?"  "  Well,  I  think  that  two  out  of  150 
may  be  benefited."     "And,"    I  said,  "the  rest  are  injured  ?""  Yes, 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  297 

all  the  rest  are  injured."  And  yet  that  man  would  not  dare  to  have 
me  mention  his  name;  he  knows  that  I  will  not.  Wherever  out- 
door public  relief  is  given  it  has  the  effect  of  relaxing  the  energies  of 
men  struggling  to  take  care  of  themselves,  which  is  an  injury  to 
their  manhood.     That  is  the  basis  of  the  objection  to  it. 

I  am  sorry,  therefore,  that  some  of  our  foreign  friends,  when  asked 
to  discuss  outdoor  relief,  at  once  begin  to  describe  some  system  of 
social  charity,  some  individual  process  of  family  or  personal  visita- 
tion of  the  poor.  Of  course,  in  cases  of  distress  we  may  go  to  the 
afflicted  in  a  friendly  way  and,  taking  a  man  by  the  hand,  say, 
"John,  are  you  not  in  trouble?"  "  Yes,  my  wife  is  sick,  my  child  is 
afflicted  ;  I  haven't  been  able  to  get  work."  And  you  can  either 
send  something  to  the  house  or  slip  a  piece  of  money  into  his  hand. 
But  that  is  not  public  outdoor  I'elief. 

I  endorse  cordially  what  has  been  said  in  Mr.  van  Geert's  paper; 
it  shows  that  certain  things  may  be  done  outside  of  institutions.  I 
approve  of  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Paine  in  the  same  general  direction. 
But  caring  for  and  helping  boys  can  hardly  be  called  outdoor  relief. 
When  we  discuss  the  question  of  public  or  private  outdoor  relief  we 
ought  to  confine  ourselves  to  the  point.  What  is  done  for  the  public 
should  be  for  the  public  good,  and  what  is  done  for  individuals 
should  not  be  a  peril  to  them.  We  had  in  our  county  a  man  who 
was  thrifty  and  lived  independently,  but  he  received  aid  at  one  time 
and  he  stopped  work  at  once.  His  energies  were  paralyzed ;  he  felt 
that  the  public  owed  him  a  living.  There  is  a  great  difference 
between  the  poor  and  the  pauperized.  The  pauperized  control  the 
relieving  officers.  They  say  to  them,  "  Give  me  so  much,"  or 
"  Increase  what  you  give  me  or  I  will  work  at  the  polls  for  your 
defeat."  That  is  the  road  to  destruction,  to  anarchy  and  ruin. 
There  are  so  many  phases  of  this  question  that  I  will  not  take  any 
more  time.  We  must  not  let  the  recipient  of  relief  become  dictator 
as  to  its  form  and  amount. 

The  Chairman. — The  remarks  of  Judge  Follett  suggest  very 
forcibly  one  great  evil  which  exists  in  some  of  our  cities  in  connec- 
tion with  poor  law  administration.  The  public  administrators  of 
the  funds  of  the  poor  should  be  appointed  and  not  elected,  so  that 
they  may  at  least  be  free  to  do  the  best  that  their  powers  and  intelli- 
gence will  permit  them  to  do. 

I  will  ask  Miss  Zilpha  D.  Smith,  of  Boston,  to  speak. 

Miss  Smith. — I  was  glad  to  hear  Mr.  Vallance's  paper,  because  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  history  of  outdoor  relief  in  London  is  more 
instructive  and  beneficial  than  in  Berlin  or  Philadelphia.  As  to  out- 
door relief  being  bad  in  Berlin,  that  may  have  been  simply  because 
it  was  administered  under  bad  conditions;  but  in  England  there 
was  no  such  trouble.  There  they  have  been  able  to  abolish  outdoor 
relief,  without  hardship  to  the  poor,  and  bring  about  a  better  condi- 
tion of  things.  It  seems,  therefore,  that  the  evils  of  outdoor  relief 
are  inherent  in  the  system. 


298  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM, 

I  had  the  pleasure,  four  years  ago,  to  talk  with  Mr.  Crowder,  one 
of  the  guardians  of  the  parish  of  St.  George,  which  is  even  poorer 
than  that  of  Whitechapel.  He  told  me  that  he  made  it  a  point,  in 
his  borird  of  guardians  when  they  began  to  refuse  outdoor  relief,  to  visit 
in  person  every  family  whose  application  had  been  rejected.  He  was, 
I  think,  a  rich  man  himself;  at  least  he  was  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances ;  but  whether  or  no,  he  was  determined  to  see  the  right  thing 
done ;  and  he  found  that  there  were  many  legitimate  ways  in  which 
the  poor  could  take  care  of  themselves,  without  breaking  up  fam- 
ilies or  going  to  the  workhouse.  He  said  that  it  would  have  been 
more  difficult  in  a  district  less  poor,  for  the  fact  that  poor  people  can 
successfully  appeal  for  help  to  their  neighbors  renders  it  harder  to 
convince  them  that  they  can  do  for  themselves. 

In  Brooklyn,  outdoor  relief  has  been  abolished  by  gradually 
leaving  first  one  family  and  then  another  off  the  list  as  they  become 
able  to  care  for  themselves.  That  .process  began  long  before  they 
h  id  an  almshouse.  When  the  list  was  reduced  to  something  less 
than  twenty,  then  they  said,  "  These  people  must  have  an  alms- 
house." They  built  an  almshouse  in  a  wealthy  location,  thinking 
they  would  have  about  'seventeen  inmates,  but  when  it  was  ready 
only  one  of  them  went  there. 

i\ir.  A.  O.  Wright,  of  Madison,  Wisconsin. — My  experience  for 
a  number  of  years  as  an  inspector  of  the  poor  and  of  the  charitable 
institutions  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  has  led  me  to  the  deliberate 
onviction  that  the  less  that  is  done  in  the  way  of  charity  the  better 
it  will  be  for  the  state  and  for  charity.  It  is  impossible,  perhaps,  to 
abolish  public  poor  relief,  but  it  is  possible  to  abolish  public  outdoor 
relief  That  certainly  can  be  done,  except,  perhaps,  in  agricultural 
communities.  There  are  agricultural  communities  where  it  could 
not  be  done ;  but  there  every  resident  knows  every  other  resident. 
I  do  not  think  that  institutional  relief  can  yet  be  dispensed  with.  It 
has  the  indispensable  means  of  dealing  with  those  who  refuse  out- 
door relief  We  say  to  them,  "  If  you  refuse  outdoor  relief  you  can 
go  to  the  poorhouse"  I  am  speaking  about  what  has  been  done  by 
the  State  Board  of  Charities  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin.  They  found 
that  a  labor  system  was  desirable  in  the  poorhouses,  and  it  has  been 
introduced  into  nearly  every  one  of  the  Wisconsin  poorhouses.  The 
result  is  that  the  inmates  are  happier  than  when  they  had  nothing  to 
do. 

Public  poor  relief  is  in  no  sense  charity.  It  is  a  form  of  socialism. 
The  only  true  charity  is  that  which  is  voluntarily  and  privately  given. 
It  is  not  charity  to  collect  taxes  from  me  and  give  the  money  thus 
obtained  to  such  persons  as  may  be  selected  by  a  public  ofificial.  That 
is  socialism.  But  it  is  charitv  for  Miss  Smith  to  take  money  freely 
given  by  individuals  and  with  that  help  to  lift  up  those  who  are  cast 
down.  Public  poor  relief  cannot  do  that ;  it  doles  out  its  allowances 
in  small  amounts  to  the  pauperized.  Private  charity  is  capable  of 
giving  adequate  relief,  and  it  aids  not  merely  those  who  are  pauper- 


J 


i 


PROCEEDINGS    AND    DISCUSSIONS.  299 

ized,    but    the   worthy   destitute,    whom    it   saves    from    becoming 
paupers. 

Mr.  Paine,  of  Boston. — I  desire  in  one  word  to  express  the  great 
pleasure  with  which  I  listened  to  the  paper  of  Mr.  Vallance.  His 
thought  is  of  infinite  value,  in  its  application  to  the  general  condition 
of  the  very  poor  who  belong  to  the  working  classes.  What  he  said 
is,  to  my  mind,  the  very  hinge  of  the  question.  If  we  can  teach  the 
people,  if  we  can  convince  the  socialists,  if  we  make  the  clergy 
of  all  denominations  understand,  that  this  lax  relief  is  demoralizing 
and  injurious,  we  shall  accomplish  marvels.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
do  not  quite  see  why  it  is  necessary  that  private  relief  should  be  admin- 
istered under  the  same  strict  limitations.  I  have  never  understood 
the  problem.  When  one  sees  in  the  report  of  a  private  relief  society 
in  Brooklyn  that  ten  thousand  dollars  spent  in  a  year  gave  relief  to 
about  ten  thousand  families  (40,000  souls),  at  the  rate  of  a  dollar  a 
family,  that  puzzles  me.    I  do  not  perceive  the  use  of  this  little  drib-  , 

bling,  petty  policy  of  doling  out  relief  in  small  sums.     Relief,  where       v^lt' 
the  demand  for  it  is  real,  should  be  given  generously  and  in  ade--?     / 
quate  amount.     We  have  families  in  Boston  who  receive  two  hun-  \ 
dred  or  three  hundred  dollars  a  year  in  relief.     Is  it  not  the  fact  that 
where  these  great  relief  societies  descend  to  doling  out  help  at  the 
rate  of  one  dollar  a  family,  they  do  as  much  harm  as  public  outdoor 
relief  could  do? 

The  following  papers  were  presented  and  read  by  title :      The 
Work  of  the  London  County  Council  in  Relation  to  Public  Health 
and  the  Housing  of  the   Working;   Classes,  by  Mr.  John  Lowles  ; 
The  Austrian  Poor  Law  System,  by  Miss  Edith  Sellers  ;  Poverty 
and  its  Relief  in  Austria,  by  Dr.  Menger  ;  Sketch  of  the  Organiza- 
tion of  Public  Poor  Relief  in  Aiistria,  by  Dr.  Friederich  Probst; 
Poor  Relief  i7i  Vienna,  audits  Reforin,  by  Dr.  Rudolph  Kobatsch  ; 
Charity  in  Tzcrkey,  by  Mr.  T.  Flakky. 
The  section  adjourned. 

Fourth  Session,  June  i6,  1893,  2  p.  m. 

In  the  absence  of  the  chairman  of  the  section,  Mr.  John  H. 
Finley  presided. 

Mr.  A.  O.  Wright,  of  Madison,  Wisconsin,  read  a  paper  on  the 
Causes  of  Pauperism  a7id  the  Relation  of  the  State  to  it. 

Dr.  L.  L.  Rowland,  superintendent  of  the  State  Hospital  for  the 
Insane,  Salem,  Oregon. — I  would  like  to  inquire  how  we  are  to 
avoid  running  in  a  circle  upon  this  question?  A  few  meetings  ago 
it  was  argued  that  outdoor  relief  should  not  be  permitted  ;  and  at 
another  meeting  it  was  said  that  it  would  be  far  better  to  afford  the 
mother  help  at  home  than  to  take  her  children  away  from  her. 


300  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

A  VOICE. — From  private  sources,  however. 

Dr.  Rowland. — I  did  not  so  understand  it.  But  I  do  not  want 
to  discuss  the  question.  I  merely  ask,  how  are  we  to  help  those 
who  require  but  little  help,  and  yet  not  encourage  pauperism  ? 

Mr.  Wright. — It  seems  to  me  that  just  such  cases  are  those 
which  most  appeal  to  private  benevolence.  If  there  were  no  public 
relief  for  them,  there  would  be  found  to  be  plenty  of  charity  in  the 
country.  The  one  great  evil  of  outdoor  relief  is  that  it  destroys  che 
motive  to  private  benevolence,  and  by  eliminating  from  relief  the 
element  of  sympathy,  converts  it  into  a  cold  and  mechanical  arrange- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  state. 

Mr.  P.  W.  Ayres,  of  Cincinnati. — We  may  congratulate  ourselves 
that  we  have  listened  to  such  a  paper.  I  wish  that  it  might  be  laid 
before  some  of  our  state  legislatures,  in  the  hope  of  cutting  off  out- 
door relief  to  a  greater  extent  than  has  yet  been  done. 

There  has  been  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  Board  of  State  Char- 
ities in  Ohio  that  it  would  not  be  advisable  to  abolish  all  outdoor 
relief,  because  it  does  not  seem  practicable  everywhere  to  meet  the 
need  by  private  contributions.  It  is  agreed  that  in  large  cities  it  can 
be  abolished.  As  a  practical  worker,  I  am  sure  that  there  it  is 
always  harmful.  The  societies  and  churches  in  Cincinnati  or  any 
other  large  city  are  abundantly  able  to  care  for  all  cases  of  temporary 
distress. 

My  mind  has  been  dwelling  upon  the  possibility  of  substituting 
for  the  present  outdoor  relief  in  country  districts,  systematic  co-op- 
eration by  the  benevolent  and  Christian  people  of  five  or  six  or  more 
counties,  through  the  employment  of  a  private  agent,  who  could 
investigate  and  report  upon  cases  of  distress,  so  that  the  want  could 
be  intelligently  and  completely  and  promptly  met.  In  large  cities 
we  work  to  advantage,  because  the  population  is  compact  and  we 
can  reach  a  case  quickly.  With  a  paid  agent  for  six  counties  to 
distribute  money  raised  from  private  sources,  all  needed  temporary 
relief  could  be  given  at  a  far  less  cost  than  the  public  now  pays 
for  it. 

Mr.  Lucius  C.  Storrs,  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
of  Michigan. — The  plan  suggested  by  Dr.  Ayres  is  certainly  ideal.  I 
suppose  that  by  the  time  that  the  next  four-hundredth  anniversary 
of  the  discovery  of  America  is  celebrated  we  may  see  it  adopted. 
Mr.  Wright  knows  as  well  as  myself  that  at  present  it  is  not  prac- 
tical. But  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  say  that  I  hope,  when  the 
committees  of  the  National 'Conference  of  Charities  are  appointed 
at  Nashville  next  year,  the  committee  on  charity  organization 
will  be  so  constituted  that  both  the  city  and  country  will  be  repre- 
sented on  it.  There  is  no  antagonism  between  the  two,  and  we 
want  advice  and  instruction  and  experience  from  both  sides.  Our 
city  friends  describe  methods  of  work  admirably  adapted  to  cities ; 
but  a  large  number  of  us  come  from  smaller  places,  and  what  we 
want  to  know  is  the  best  way  to  relieve  poverty  in  rural  districts  and 
in  towns.  One  complements  the  other,  and  both  should  go  together. 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  3OI 

Mrs.  Louisa  R.Wardner,  of  Chicago. — I  wish  to  ask  Mr.  Wright's 
opinion  of  indiscriminate  private  charity.  I  have  been  attending  the 
Conference  of  Charities  for  many  years  and  I  have  often  heard  the 
recommendation  not  to  give  alms  to  individuals.  Now  you  say  that 
the  poor  should  be  relieved  by  private  charity.  What  do  you 
recommend?  Is  house-to-house  charity  the  proper  method  where 
there  are  no  organized  charities  ? 

Mr.  Wright. — My  paper  does  not  cover  that  ground.  It  would 
make  it  too  long  if  I  had  tried  to  cover  everything ;  so  I  omitted 
the  question  of  private  charity.  But  I  will  say  that,  as  between 
lavish  public  poor  relief  and  lavish  private  poor  relief,  it  is  a  far  less 
evil  to  have  it  given  by  private  charity. 

Mrs.  Wardner. — You  mean  individually? 

Mr.  Wright. — Or  by  societies  either.  The  charity  organization 
societies  have  covered  that  ground. 

Mr.  Roberts,  of  Wisconsin. — I  want  to  ask  Mr.  Wright  a  ques- 
tion. Very  little  has  been  said  in  regard  to  poorhouse  administra- 
tion. I  know  a  little  about  the  poorhouses  of  the  state  of  New  York, 
and  how  difficult  it  has  been  to  provide  systematic,  continuous  work 
for  the  inmates.  Have  you  any  suggestions  to  make  touching  that 
point? 

Mr.  Wright. — I  read  a  paper  before  the  National  Conference 
of  Charities  at  San  Francisco  on  that  subject.  My  experience 
has  been  in  country  poorhouses  rather  than  in  those  of  large 
cities.  The  least  successful  attempt  in  that  line  made  in  Wisconsin 
is  in  Milwaukee.  Of  course  the  problem  is  harder  in  the  city  than 
in  the  country.  Yet  most  country  poorhouses  do  not  provide  the 
occupations  they  might.  There  is  a  variety  of  industries  on  a  farm, 
and  some  kind  of  work  can  be  assigned  to  almost  every  inmate. 
One  secret  of  success,  in  addition  to  the  kind  but  firm  determination 
of  the  superintendent  and  matron,  is  the  making  of  certain  individ- 
uals responsible  for  the  discharge  of  certain  daily  duties,  so  that  the 
organization  of  labor  does  not  require  to  be  renewed  every  morning. 
The  benefit  is  not  in  the  money  value  of  the  labor,  but  in  the 
discipline. 

The  Chairman. — I  have  been  very  much  interested  in  a  scheme 
in  vogue  in  England  known  as  the  Brabazon  scheme.  The  inmates 
are  taught  to  make  fancy  things,  to  sew  and  to  carve ;  and  one  is 
surprised  to  see  what  these  poor  people  can  do  with  a  very  little 
training.  Some  ladies  of  the  district  give  instruction  to  the  inmates, 
visiting  the  workhouse  once  or  twice  a  week,  and  in  that  way  keep 
them  constantly  employed.  An  effort  has  been  made  on  this  side  to 
carry  out  the  plan  in  one  or  more  of  the  poorhouses  in  the  state  of 
New  York,  and  the  result  has  been  satisfactory.  An  account  of  the 
work  of  Lady  Brabazon  may  be  found  in  the  State  Charities  Record, 
which  may  be  had  on  application  to  the  State  Charities  Aid  Associ- 
ation of  New  York. 


302  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

Mr.  P.  W.  Ayres,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  read  a  paper  on  Free 
Ptiblic  Employment  Offices  in  Ohio. 

The  next  paper,  on  Immigration  of  Aliens,  by  Mr.  Arnold 
White,  of  London,  was  read  by  Rev.  H.  H.  Hart,  of  St.  Paul, 
Minnesota. 

Professor  E.  W.  Bemis,  of  the  University  of  Chicago. — The  immi- 
gration question  has  greatly  interested  me.  Restrictions  upon  the 
freedom  of  immigration  are  demanded  for  the  protection  of  the 
standard  of  living  of  our  working  classes.  The  depressing  influence 
of  a  low  standard  of  living  on  the  part  of  immigrants  is  especially 
felt  in  our  slum  districts.  Pauper  immigration  is  responsible  for  the 
transfer  of  the  sweating  system  to  American  soil.  It  complicates  the 
troubles  in  our  mining  sections,  and  it  is  the  cause  of  much  violence 
in  strikes.  It  unloads  upon  us  a  radical  element  very  hard  to 
control. 

In  discussing  this  question  with  workingmen.  we  discover  the 
existence  of  a  divided  sentiment.  Some  of  the  labor  leaders  favor 
restriction.  They  take  the  ground  that  an  educational  test  would 
be  a  good  thing ;  that  we  should  keep  out,  let  us  say,  all  immigrants 
over  fifteen  years  of  age  who  cannot  read  and  write  their  own  lan- 
guage. You  know  that  came  very  near  passing  the  last  Congress. 
It  is  believed  that  a  majority  of  both  houses  was  in  favor  of  the  bill, 
but  it  came  up  in  such  a  form  as  to  require  a  two-thirds  vote,  and  so 
was  defeated. 

I  notice  with  interest  the  statistics  in  a  late  report  of  the  New  York 
Commissioners  of  Immigration  as  to  the  relative  illiteracy  of  the 
various  nationalities,  as  shown  by  the  ability  of  all  over  fifteen  years 
of  age  who  had  come  to  New  York  during  about  nine  months  of  the 
year  1892,  to  read  and  write.  From  nearly  all  the  Germanic  peoples, 
English,  Scotch,  Norwegian,  Swedish,  Danish,  Germans,  etc.,  not 
more  than  i  per  cent,  were  illiterate.  From  Ireland  less  than  10  per 
cent.  But  from  Eastern  and  Southern  Europe  the  illiteracy  of  some 
nationalities  went  to  more  than  50  per  cent.  This  shows  that  an 
educational  test  would  keep  out  thevery  immigrants  whom  we  would 
like  to  keep  out.  It  would  not  keep  out  all  the  Jews,  but  it  would 
affect  the  other  nationalities  quite  sharply. 

In  talking  with  recent  immigrants  I  find  them  disposed  to  favor 
immigration,  for  two  reasons.  One  is  the  desire  to  have  their  rela- 
tives here ;  the  other,  that  a  large  portion  of  the  very  poor  in  this 
country  are  becoming  radically  and  extremely  socialistic  in  their 
tendencies.  They  are  glad,  for  instance,  when  a  trades-union  is  in 
anyway  hampered  by  a  decision  of  the  courts,  as  was  the  engineers' 
union  by  the  Toledo  decision.  They  are  delighted  at  anything 
which  tends  to  crush  out  effort  on  the  part  of  workingmen,  in  order 
that  they  may  be  driven  into  socialism.  They  are  glad  to  see  wages 
temporarily  reduced,  thinking  that  it  will  produce  a  crisis  dangerous 
to  the  present  industrial  system.      Inasmuch  as  immigration  will 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  303 

increase  the  slum  population  and  hasten  the  coming  crisis,  they 
welcome  it.  That  element  is  growing  very  rapidly,  recruited  by 
immigration.     For  that  very  reason,  ot  course,  we  oppose  it. 

One  of  my  students  lately  investigated  the  character  of  the  foreign- 
born  who  send  money  to  Europe  through  the  postoffice  to  help  their 
friends  come  to  this  country.  He  found  that  more  than  half  of  them 
are  unable  to  sign  their  names. 

I  have  also  been  impressed  with  statistics  showing  the  average 
amount  of  money  brought  into  this  country  by  immigrants;  it  is,  lor 
the  majority  of  nationalities,  less  than  thirty-five  dollars  per  capita. 

A  VOICE. — The  immigrants  probably  conceal  the  amount  of 
money  they  have  with  them. 

Professor  Bemis. — That  may  be  so.  But  I  feel  that  we  ought  to 
restrict  immigration,  and  I  believe  that  the  movement  is  spreading 
among  the  wage-earners  themselves.  Some  people  think  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  our  fathers,  but  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  his  Notes 
on  Virginia,  opposed  strenuously  the  encouragement  of  immigration 
from  the  continent  of  Europe,  preferring  to  wait  for  the  natural 
increase  of  our  native  population, 

M.  Stanislas  H.  Haine,  of  Antwerp,  Belgium,  addressed  the 
section  on  the  subject  of  the  Mont  de  PiHe  in  Antwerp.  He  said 
that  the  Mont  de  Piete  is  an  institution  established  by  the  govern- 
ment for  the  purpose  of  loaning  small  sums  of  money  on  personal 
property.  Such  loans  are  made  at  seven  per  cent.  For  a  period  of 
two  years,  the  largest  sum  loaned  is  $200  and  the  smallest  forty 
cents.  The  original  capital  was  contributed  by  the  government. 
This  institution  has  been  in  operation  since  1830,  and  has  earned 
enough  to  repay  to  the  government  nearly  the  whole  of  its  original 
endowment.  The  profits  have  averaged  about  $4000  a  year.  It 
employs  about  thirty  clerks,  and  there  are  several  branches,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  city.  The  five  directors  are  nominated  by  the 
city  council  for  four  years.  Money  is  loaned  without  interest  when 
the  applicant  brings  a  certificate  from  the  public  administrators  of 
charity  that  he  is  unable  to  pay  interest;  but  this  seldom  happens. 
The  directors  usually  calculate  to  loan  about  four-fifths  of  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  article  deposited  as  security.  They  have  some- 
times taken  stolen  goods,  especially  from  other  cities.  On  proof  of 
ownership,  the  owner  is  given  back  his  property  and  the  loss  falls 
upon  the  institution.  Articles  in  pawn  are  kept  for  thirteen  months 
after  the  expiration  of  the  loan  and  sold  within  the  ensuing  year. 

A  paper  on  Tramps,  by  Professor  John  J.  McCook,  of  Trinity 
College,  Hartford,  was  read  by  Mr.  Alexander  Johnson. 
Mr.  A.  O.  Wright,  of  Wisconsin,  read  a  paper  on  Vagrancy. 

The  Chairman. — General  Brinkerhoff  tells  me  that  they  have  no 
vagrancy  problem  in  Ohio.     I  should  like  to  know  why. 

General  RoeliffW.  Brinkerhoff,  president  of  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  of  Ohio. — I  simply  meant  to  say  that  the  vagrant  ques- 


304  PUBLIC  TREATMENT  OF  PAUPERISM. 

tion  is  not  there  so  serious  as  to  attract  our  attention  as  members  of 
the  State  Board  of  Charities.  Mr.  Ayres  knows  more  about  the 
tramp  question  than  I  do,  because  he  comes  from  the  city  of  Cincin- 
nati. 

The  Chairman. — Have  you  anything  to  say  in  regard  to  this 
question,  Mr.  Ayres? 

Mr.  P.  W.  Ayres. — No.  The  last  paper  read  stated  that  a  good 
many  tramps  are  the  product  ot  the  slums  in  large  cities.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  the  young  man  from  the  slums  is  too  debauched 
to  become  a  tramp  ;  he  hasn't  the  requisite  energy.  Their  ranks 
are  more  largely  recruited  from  the  young  men  in  small  towns. 
While  on  the  floor,  I  wish  to  ask  if  anybody  knows  of  any  employ- 
ment for  prisoners  in  small  jails  ? 

Mr.  Wright. — Go  to  Media  and  see  for  yourself  The  beauty 
of  the  separate  system,  in  the  Eastern  Pennsylvania  Penitentiary  and 
in  several  of  the  Pennsylvania  county  jails,  is  that  labor  can  be 
carried  on  without  the  aid  of  machinery  ;  the  industries  followed  are 
such  as  carpet-weaving,  basket-making,  braiding  mats,  knitting  and 
the  like,  which  can  be  performed  by  individuals  in  single  cells.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  convicts  should  be  employed  to  work  on 
the  roads,  but  a  chain-gang  is  a  demoralizing  spectacle.  The 
remedy  is  worse  than  the  disease. 

Mr.  Rich. — I  think  that  one  great  cause  of  vagrancy  is  the  dis- 
proportion between  production  and  consumption.  While  in  London, 
England,  eight  months  ago,  I  was  told  that  there  were  500,000 
criminals  made  so  by  circumstances  over  which  they  had  no  control. 
I  was  told  that  others  were  working  sixteen  hours  a  day.  There  are 
40,000  'bus -men  alone  in  the  city  of  London  who  work  sixteen  hours 
a  day,  for  about  five  dollars  a  week  in  our  money.  I  saw  a  band  of 
workingmen  who  had  been  made  tramps  by  circumstances,  carrjdng 
a  banner  with  this  inscription,  "We  demand  the  right  to  work." 
There  are  tens  of  thousands  in  our  country  who  demand  the  right  to 
work,  but  cannot  get  it,  who  are  first  made  tramps  and  then  criminals 
because  this  demand  is  not  met. 

I  am  a  German  by  birth.  I  occupied  a  pulpit  for  eighteen  years 
in  the  German  Reformed  Church.  I  thank  heaven  that  the  first  thing 
I  had  to  learn  when  I  returned  from  service  in  the  army  during  the 
Civil  War  was  to  handle  a  saw,  a  chisel  and  a  hatchet.  I  have  tried 
to  find  the  solution  of  the  social  question  by  taking  a  practical  view 
of  it,  and  so  I  applied  in  this  town  for  work.  I  have  gone  where  I 
could  see  the  condition  of  labor  with  my  own  eyes.  I  applied  at  the 
Fair  the  other  day  for  employment,  and  here  is  my  badge,  number 
211.  When  I  asked  for  employment  that  morning  it  was  announced 
that  100  would  be  engaged.  There  were  500  there,  and  300  of  them 
were  sent  home  in  two  hours.  In  three  hours  after  that,  50  more 
were  dismissed,  and  then  50  more.  I  happened  to  be  one  of  the 
fortunate  ones,  and  I  saw  the  fierce  struggle  for  work.  God  give  us 
more  men  that  will  deny  themselves,  leave  their  pulpits,  mingle  with 


PROCEEDINGS   AND    DISCUSSIONS.  305 

the  lower  classes,  and  there,  in  contact  with  their  suffering,  speak  a 
word  to  those  who  are  in  authority,  urging  them  to  use  their  power 
and  influence  to  help  mankind  to  a  higher  level. 

I  glory  in  what  General  Booth  has  done  in  England.  I  had  a  card 
of  admission  from  him  to  his  House  of  Rescue,  and  I  saw  some  of 
the  grand  work  he  is  doing  in  the  houses  which  he  has  erected  for 
tramps  and  for  the  poor.  But,  my  dear  friends,  do  you  not  know  that 
the  work  g'iven  by  him  to  a  tramp,  in  one  of  these  homes,  takes  the 
bread  out  of  the  mouth  of  some  poor  family,  and  robs  some  father  of 
work  who  has  a  wife  and  children  dependent  on  him  ?  This  labor 
problem  is  the  problem  of  our  age.  Until  we  are  filled  with  true 
charity  from  above,  with  love  and  good  will  to  man,  until  we  are 
willing  to  sacrifice  and  to  suffer,  and  deny  ourselves  some  of  our 
comforts  for  their  sake,  we  shall  never  solve  this  problem.  God  give 
us  mercy  !     God  give  us  charity  ! 

The  Chairman. — The  gentleman  has  certainly  named  the  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  solution  of  all  social  problems. 

The  following  papers  were  read  by  title :  Private  Unofficial 
Visitation  of  Public  Instittitions,  by  Miss  Louisa  Twining  ;  Relief 
by  Work  in  France,  by  M.  Grosseteste-Thierry,  of  Paris; 
Pauperism  and  Crime,  by  Mr.  John  R.  Weber  ;  Municipal  Pro- 
visioyi  for  Shelter  of  Homeless  Poor  in  Boston,  by  Mr.  Thomas  F. 
Ring,  of  Boston;  The  Problem  of  Inebriate  Paziperism.,  by  Dr.  T. 
D.  Crothers,  of  Hartford. 

The  section  then  adjourned  sine  die. 


1 


i 


INDEX. 

Abdul  Hamid  II.,  287. 
Adams,  Henry  C,  35. 

Almsgiving,  indiscriminate,  35,  47-49,  148,  150. 
Almshouses,  see  Poorhouses, 
Altgeld,  John  P.,  29. 
Anderson,  Martin  B.,  60. 
Antwerp  Charity  Board,  206. 
Armendepartmetit,  see  Vienna. 
Aschrott,  P.  F.,  47. 

Associated  Charities  of  Boston,  report  of,  47. 
/fj>'/ (municipal  boarding-house),  Vienna,  219,  220. 

Asylums,  for  children,  in  New  York  city,  79;  in  New  York  state,  79,82;  in 
Austria,  251  ;  in  Belgium,  205,  206  ;  in  Vienna,  219. 

for  criminals,  in  New  York  state,  83 ;  see  London  County  Council. 

for  feeble-minded  women,  in  New  York  state,  72. 

for  idiots,  in  New  York  state,  71,  72,  73. 

for  imbeciles,  London,  174. 

for  the  insane,  in  New  York  state,  73,  75,  78,  79,  81,  85  ;  in  London, 

174. 

Australia,  charity  in,  291-293. 

Charity  Conference,  293. 

Austria,  charity  in,  19-20 ;  poor  law  system  in,  19,  216-224,  230,  232,  240,  299 ; 
classification  of  paupers  in,  216-217  >  priests  as  guardians  of  the  poor 
in,  217  ;  workhouses  in,  220  ;  pensions  to  the  aged  in,  221-224  ;  poverty 
and  its  relief  in,  224-229;  displacement  of  labor  in,  225;  small  land 
holdings  in,  226-227  ;  pauper  Jews  in,  227-228  ;  settlement  laws  in,  228, 
229,  230,  232,  235-237,  244,  246,  247,  268  ;  public  poor  relief  in  cities  in, 
232-235;  communal  rights  in,  see  Settlement  laws  ;  poorhouses  in,  237, 
251  ;  relief  in  kind  in,  238  ;  boarding-out  system  in,  238  ;  care  of  depen- 
dent children  in,  238,  246;  relief  by  work  in,  239  ;  duties  of  commune 
to  poor  in,  228,  229,  231,  237,  238,  239,  240,  241,  246,  268,  269;  sources 
of  public  relief  in,  239-241  ;  poor  relief  system  in,  246,  251,  252;  domi- 
cile relief  in,  250,  251,  253  ;  asylums  for  children  in,  251  ;  poor  tax  in, 
252-253;  j^i*  Vienna. 

Ayres,  Philip  W.,  124-131,  294,  300,  302,  304. 

Barnett,  S.  A.,  49. 

Bedford  Industrial  Building,  30,  53,  54. 

Begging,  57  ;  by  letter,  207-208  ;  suppression  of,  209,  2n,  213;  licenses,  152  ; 

see  Unions  cT Assistance. 
Belgium,  charity  in,  198-206,  296;  dependent  children  in,  203-206. 


308  •  INDEX. 

Bemis,  Edward  W.,  302,  303. 

Berlin,  system  of  poor  relief,  25S,  270;  temporary  relief  in,  261  ;  outdoor 
relief  in,  297. 

Better  Dwellings  Society,  Boston,  41. 

Blind,  the,  see  Homes  for,  Statistics,  Tables, 

Boarding-out  system  for  children,  82,83,  155;  in  Austria,  218-219,  238,  266; 
in  England,  82  ;  in  Australia,  292  ;  objections  to, 82,  204-205  ;  j^^  White- 
chapel,  Statistics. 

Association  for  Orphans  and  Destitute  Children    in    Families, 

England,  190. 

Board  of  State  Charities,  Ohio,  300. 

Boards  of  Health,  39,  41,  57. 

Booth,  Charles,  35,  36,  50,  114,  161,  305. 

Boston,  friendly  visitors  in,  32  ;  private  charities  in,  294  ;  poor  relief  in,  299  ; 
municipal  provision  for  shelter  of  homeless  poor  in,  1 17-124,  305. 

Commission,  1878,  on  treatment  of  the  poor,  48. 

Co-operative  Building  Company,  3S. 

Brabazon  Scheme,  191,  301. 

Brackett,  Jeffrey  R.,  295. 

Bradfield  Union,  England,  156. 

Brinkerhoff,  Roeliff,  303. 

Brixworth  Union,  England,  156. 

Brookline,  success  of  relief  system  in,  48. 

Brooklyn,  charity  in,  48,  298,  299  ;  manual  training  in,  52  ;  Bureau  of  Chari- 
ties, 53;  friendly  visiting,  35,  53. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  23. 

Building  association  system,  Philadelphia,  295. 

Burdett,  Henry  C,  290-291. 

Bureau  de  Bienfaisance  (board  of  charity),  Belgium,  act  to  establish,  198; 
objects  of,  198;  stores  of,  198-199;  assistance  rendered  by,  198-199, 
200,201,  202-203;  personnel  of,  199-200;  methods  of  work,  199,  200, 
203  ;  friendly  visitors  of,  200;  model  farm  of,  206  ;  women  workers  for, 
206. 

,  Paris,  9,  211  ;  cost  of  supporting,  252,  261. 

Buzelle,  George  B.,  53. 

• 

Casual  wards,  157  ;  London,  26,  27. 

Central  Office  for  Charitable  Works,  Paris,  209. 

Chalmelle,  agricultural  colony  at,  209-211.  ' 

Charity,  constructive,  30;  repressive  methods  of,  30;  duty  of,  90;  private 
versus  oflScial,  95  ;  relation  of  the  Church  to  public,  96;  abuses  of  pri- 
vate, 148,  149,  157;  in  large  cities,  300;  prevention  of  crime  by,  285; 
correction  and,  285;  private,  29S,  300,301. 

fund,  diversion  of,  197. 

organization,  objects  of,  13,  32  ;  comparison  of  with  Elberfeld  system, 

20-22;  criticism  of  methods,  35;  growth  of,  60  ;    see  Elberfeld  system, 
Newport. 


INDEX. 


309 


Charity  organization  societies,  attitude  towards  outdoor  relief,  27  ;  to  abolish 
pauperism,  150;  relation  of,  to  private  poor  relief,  301;  see  Friendly 
visitors,  Glasgow,  Whitechapel. 

Charles,  Mrs.,  45. 

Chevalier,  93. 

Chicago,  slums  in,  42  ;  homes  of  the  poor  in,  42;  need  of  municipal  lodging 
houses  in,  176. 

Hebrew  Relief  Society,  report  of,  42. 

Children,  neglect  of,  a  cause  of  pauperism,  35,  43  ;  dependent,  in  Massachu- 
setts, 46  ;  in  Pennsylvania,  46  ;  in  Michigan,  46  ;  in  Austria,  21S,  219,  236, 
246;  in  Belgium,  203-206;  illegitimate,  147,  150;  feeble-minded,  190 ; 
see  Boarding-out  system,  Placing-out  system,  Public  aid,  Whitechapel. 

Children's  Aid  Society  of  New  York,  83. 

Church,  the  relation  of  to  public  charity,  96-97. 

Cincinnati,  private  poor  relief  in,  294. 

Cities,  conditions  of  life  in  large,  24-26  ;  charity  in  large,  300, 

Classification,  see  Sexes. 

Coal  fund,  Philadelphia,  296. 

Codman,  Mrs.  James  M.,  48. 

College  settlements,  56, 

Colonies,  charity,  Chalmelle,  209-211  ;  Congo  Free  State,  203;  Hoogstraeten, 
201,  203;  see  Z'wanga7-beithaiis. 

Commune,  the,  see  Austria,  France. 

Competition,  unfair,  197  ;  effects  of,  on  wages,  220. 

Congo  Free  State,  charity  colony,  203. 

Congress,  Medical,  London,  175. 

,  Municipal  Labor,  of  Cincinnati,  124. 

Constantinople,  institutions  in,  288. 

Co-operation  of  charity  organization  with  Elberfeld  system,  20-22  ;  of  econ- 
omists with  workingmen,  92  ;  of  charitable  agencies,  300. 

Co-operative  insurance  societies,  Philadelphia,  295-296. 

Corcoran,  M.  T,,  124. 

Correction  as  a  form  of  charity,  285, 

Craig,  Oscar,  58-59,  291. 

Crime,  pauperism  and,  131-140;  prevention  of,  285. 

Criminals,  284,  304  ;  tramps  as,  106-110;  Ji'^  Asylums. 

Crothers,  T.  D.,  140-146,  305. 

Crowder,  298. 

Deaf  and  dumb,  see  Homes,  Public  aid.  Tables.  * 

Destitute  Board,  Australia,  292. 

Discussions,  290-305. 

Drainage  system  of  London,  173. 

Drink,  intoxicating,  cause  of  pauperism,  35,  43  ;  sale  of,  142. 

problem,  the,  143. 

Dwellings  of  the  working  classes,  London,  37,  175-176;  see  Homes. 


310  INDEX. 

East  London  Union,  166-167. 

Economics,  relation  of,  to  philanthropy,  90-91. 

Economists,  co-operation  of,  with  workingmen,  92. 

Elberfeld  system  of  public  charity,  8,  16,93,95,  259,272;  almoners  of,  16; 
applicability  of,  to  towns,  16;  to  cities,  17;  to  the  country,  18;  adapt- 
ability of  the,  20-21  ;  see  Austria,  Charity  organization. 

Employment,  for  tramps,  110-113  ;  free  offices  for  tramps,  Ohio,  124-131,  302  ; 
agencies,  125;  lack  of,  304;  see  Paupers,  Relief  by  work.  Tramps,  Vienna. 

England,  charity  in,  1 1-13,  94  ;  outdoor  relief  in,  170  ;  poor  relief  in,  251,  252  ; 
unemployed  in,  271  ;  see  Paupers,  Poor  laws. 

Epileptics,  see  Public  aid. 

Equality,  192. 

Faucher,  151. 

Feeble-minded  children,  efforts  in  behalf  of,  190. 

• women,  efforts  in  behalf  of,  86-88. 

Finley,  John  H.,  291,  296,  299,  301,  303,  305. 

Flakky,  T.,  284-289,  299. 

Folks,  Homer,  82. 

Follett,  M.  D.,  296-297. 

France,  charity  in,  9-10,  93-94  ;  commune  in,  93-94 ;  relief  by  work  in,  207- 

216,  305;  cost  of  poor  relief  in,  252. 
Friendly  societies,  English,  155. 
visiting,  13,  171-172  ;  in  Boston,  32  ;  in  Brooklyn,  33,  53  ;  its  failure 

in  large  cities,  31,  32. 
— • visitors,  32,  33  ;    opportunity  of,  34  ;    in  Philadelphia,  32  ;    in  New 


York,  32  ;  see  Bureau  de  Bienfaisaiice. 
—  Workers'  Association,  London,  290-291 


Fry,  Elizabeth,  191. 

Gablonz,  charity  union  in,  281. 

Gairdner,  Ur.,  39. 

Gemeinniitzige  Gesellschaft  (association  for  public  good),  Switzerland,  4. 

Germany,  charity  in,  14-19,  93  ;  domicile  relief  in,  242,  250  ;  cost  of  poor  relief 

to,  252,  261  ;  unemployed  in,  271,  272;  decrease  of  poor  relief  in,  276; 

centralization  of  poor  relief  in,  281. 
Giddings,  Franklin  H.,  50. 
Girard  College,  296. 
Girls'  Friendly  Society,  London,  190. 
Gladstone,  Wm.  E.,  131,  195. 
Glasgow,    report    of    the    dwelling    committee    of    the    Charity    Organization 

Society  of,  39. 
Grosseteste-Thierry,  207-216,  305. 

Haines,  Stanislas  H.,  303. 

Handworterbucli   fiir    StaatswisseiiscJia/Uii     (dictionary    of    political    science), 
250,  252. 


INDEX.  311 

Hart,  Hastings  H.,  302. 

Health  inspection,  see  London  County  Council. 

Henderson,  Charles  R.,  89-97,  291. 

Hewitt,  Abram  S.,  32,  43. 

Hirsch,  Baron  de,  50. 

Home  for  the  poor,  Constantinople,  288. 

Savings  Society,  Boston,  294,  295. 

Temporary,  for  Women  and  Children,  Boston,  1 18-1 19. 

Homeless  poor,  shelter  for,  in  Boston,  1 17-123,  305. 

Homes,  foul,  35,  56  ;  movement  for  better,  for  the  poor,  37,  38,  39,  40,  41,  42 ; 
condition  of,  of  the  poor  in  London,  175. 

for  the  aged,  see  Versorgungsanstalten, 

blind,   deaf   and    dumb,  friendless,  soldiers  and    sailors,  see 

New  York  State. 

Hoogstraeten,  charity  colony  at,  201,  203. 

Hospital,  State,  for  the  Insane,  Salem,  Oregon,  299. 

Hospitalite' par  le  Travail  (lodging  and  food  for  work),  Paris,  208-209. 

Hospitals,  in  Melbourne,  299;  for  inebriates,  83,  144-146;  for  the  insane,  see 

Asylums  ;  tramps  in,  99,  105 ;  visitors  to,  191  ;  see  New  York  state. 
Howard,  John,  191. 
Hoyt,  Charles  S.,  60,  65. 
Huntington,  J.  O.  S.,  29,  35. 
Hyndman,  H.  M.,  38. 

Idiots,  see  Asylums,  Public  aid. 

Immigrants,  naturalization  of,  140;  insane,  138;  Russian,  195;  reasons  for 
excluding,  195-197  ;  illiteracy  of,  302  ;  possessions  of,  303. 

Immigration,  60,  131,  132,  138;  laws,  61,  62,  64  ;  plan  for  inspection  of,  139- 
140  ;  of  aliens,  191-197,  302  ;  problem,  192  ;  duty  of  statesmen  to  regu- 
late, 193  ;  facility  with  which  the  United  States  could  regulate,  194; 
reasons  for  restricting,  194,  195,  196,  302,  303  ;  lowering  of  racial  type  by 
unguarded,  194,  197  ;  see  Statistics. 

Square,  Australia,  291. 

Improving  the  Condition  of  the   Poor,  Association  for.  New  York  City,  41  ; 

Pittsburg,  42. 
Improved  Industrial  Dwellings  Company,  London,  38. 
Individual  benevolence,  96. 
Indoor  relief,  65,  14S,  170;  see  Austria,  Bureau  de  Bienfaisance,  East  London 

Union,  Whitechapel. 
Industrial  training,  53-54  ;  for  children,  Belgium,  205-206  ;  institutions,  Berlin, 

270. 
Inebriates,  140-146  ;  legal  punishment  of,  143  ;  see  Pauperism,  i'aupers. 
Insane,  classification   of,  in   poorhouses,  67  ;  immigrants,  138  ;  sec  Asylums, 

Hospitals,  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  Wisconsin. 
Institutions,  171,  291  ;  of  technical  training,  52  ;  children  in,  45;  for  juvenile 

delinquents,  84  ;  for  paupers,  Vienna,  219  ;  sec  Industrial  training.  New 

York  state. 


312  INDEX. 

Intemperance,  see  Drink. 

International  Congress  of  Charities,  at  Brussels,  3-5;  Chicago,  6,  57;  Frank- 
fort A/M,  3 ;  London,  3-5  ;  Milan,  4-5  ;  Paris,  4,  5,  6,  7,  83. 

treatment  of  the  poor  question,  1-23,  291. 

Italy,  charity  in,  lo-ii  ;  cost  of  poor  relief  in,  252. 

Jail,  tramps  in,  116-117  ;  see  Media. 

Jameson,  Mrs.,  189. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  on  immigration,  303. 

Jews,  pauper,  in  Austria,  227-228. 

Johnson,  Alexander,  303. 

Joseph,  N.  S.,  195. 

II.  of  Austria,  217,  221,  230. 

Jukes  family,  28. 

Kellogg,  Charles  D.,  41. 
Kempster,  Ur.,  131-132,  139. 
Kennedy,  John  M.,  56. 
Kobatsch,  Rudolph,  241-283,  299. 

Labor,  displacement  of,  in  Austria,  225-226. 

problem,  305. 

Lancet,  medical  commission  to  investigate  institutions,  190. 

Land  holdings,  small,  in  Austria,  226-227  ;  Turkey,  286. 

Laundries,  51,  52,  53. 

Laws,  to  provide  for  the  blind,  71 ;  for  deaf  children,  69  ;  to  protect  idiots,  see 
New  York  state.  Poor  laws. 

Leavins,  Julia,  296. 

Letchworth,  Wm.  P.,  68,  75,  80,  82. 

Literature  of  charities;  see  References. 

Loch,  C.  S.,  32. 

Lodging  House,  municipal,  London,  176  ;  see  Boston. 

London,  parishes,  172;  outdoor  relief  in, 297-298;  Royal  Commissions  on  con- 
dition of  homes  of  the  poor  in,  reports  of,  37,  175. 

Central  Poor  Law  Board,  189. 

County  Council,  work  of,  172-195,  299;  personnel  of,  173;  specific 

work  of,  drainage,  173  ;  medical  officers,  173,  174  ;  coroners,  174  ;  health 
inspection,  174,  177-188  ;  care  of  asylums  for  imbeciles  and  insane,  174 ; 
mandatory  powers,  175;  cheap  transit,  175-176;  by-laws  under  Public 
Health  Act,  177-188. 

Russo-Jewish  Committee,  195. 


Loning,  243,  250,  281. 

Love,  as  necessary  factor  in  reform  work,  55-57. 

Low,  Seth,  27,  57. 

Lowell,  Josephine  Shaw,  45,  81. 

Lower  Austrian  law  for  establishing  poor  associations,  249. 


•    INDEX.  313 

Lowles,  John,  172-188,299. 

Lunacy  Commission,  see  New  York  state. 

report  on,  by  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities,  74. 

Lyons,  Assistance  far  le  Travail  (relief  by  work),  215. 

Maison  Hospitaliere  (wayfarers'  lodge),  Paris,  208. 

Mamoz  (^Pierre  de  Touche),  207. 

Manual  training,  44  ;  schools,  52. 

Marburg  house  of  correction  for  men,  275.    • 

Marriages,  results   of  unregulated,   102,   142  ;  reckless,  increased  by  outdoor 

relief,  186;  effects  on,  of  settlement  rights,  248  ;  of  pensions,  265. 
Marseilles,  Assistance  far  le  Travail  {xtWti  by  work),  213-215. 
Martin,  Sarah,  191. 

Massachusetts,  dependent  children  in,  46.  ^ 

McCallum,  May,  151-158,  296. 
McCook,  John  J,,  97-107,  303,  305. 
McCulloch,  Oscar  C,  28. 
Meath,  Lady,  96. 
Media  jail,  116,  304. 
Medical   assistance   to  the   poor,  in  Belgium,  202-203;   Berlin,  270;  Vienna, 

259  ;  by  Bureau  de  Bienfaisance,  202,  203;  London  County  Council,  173, 

174,  177-188. 
Melbourne,  poor  relief  in,  293. 
Mendicancy,  see  Begging. 
Menger,  224-229,  299. 

Metropolis  Local  Management  Act,  London,  172. 
Metropolitan  Association  for  Befriending  Young  Servants,  190. 

Asylums  Board,  174. 

Board  of  Works,  172-173. 

Michigan,  dependent  children  in,  46. 
Mohammed,  285-286. 

Mont  de  /"////(public  pawnshop),  Antwerp,  303. 
Municipal  Labor  Congress  of  Cincinnati,  124. 
Murphy,  Shirley,  174. 

National  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Social  Science,  4. 

Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  4,  21,  48,80,83,  300,  301; 

report  of,  on  poorhouse  system,  58,  59;  report  to,  on  New  York  law  for 

state  care  of  insane,  75-77.  * 

Nationality,  192-193. 
New  Poor  Law,  English,  154-155,  156. 
Newport,  charity  organization  in,  30,  31. 
New  York  city,  friendly  visitors  in,  32;  better  homes  for  the  poor,  41  ;  first 

orphan  asylum  in,  79 ;  need  of  municipal  lodging  houses  in,  176. 
state,  homes  for  the  blind  in,  68,  71,  S8  ;  homes  for  the  deaf  and 

dumb  in,  68,  69,  70,  71,  88  ;  homes  for  children  in,  79  ;  laws  to  protect 


314  INDEX.     . 

idiots  in,  71,  72;  law  to  create  lunacy  commission,  75;  insane  asylums 
in,  72-78,  83-84,  88;  law  for  state  care  of  the  insane,  75-77;  orphan 
asylums  in,  79;  act  to  protect  orphans,  79;  children  supported  by,  see 
Statistics  ;  hospitals  in,  83  ;  cost  to,  of  supporting  its  charitable  insti- 
tutions, 86;  public  institutions  in,  83-86;  soldiers  and  sailors'  homes 
in,  83,  86;  see  Poorhouses,  Statistics,  Tables, 

Ohio,  free  public  employment  ofiSces,  124-131  ;  poor  relief  in,  296-297;  va- 
grancy in,  303-304. 

Organization,  power  of,  171  ;  of  charity,  see  Charity  organization,  Elberfeld 
system. 

Organized  effort  to  relieve  poverty,  need  of,  171,  172. 

Orphans,  act  to  protect  in  New  York  state,  see  New  York  state  ;  see  Asylums. 

Outdoor  relief,  46,  171,  296,  297,  298,  299,  300;  reform  of,  49;  abuses  of,  148, 
156;  effects  of,  293-294;  in  Australia,  292;  Austria,  251-252;  Brooklyn, 
298-299;  England  and  Wales,  170;  London,  170;  see  East  London 
Union,  New  York,  Public  aid,  State  boards  of  charities,  Whitechapel. 

Overseers  of  the  poor,  Vienna,  254-255,  256,  258,  259. 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  23-58,  290,  293,  297,  299. 

Pan-denominational  committee,  London,  290-291. 

Paris  Mutuels  (mutual  pools),  211. 

Pauper  laws,  64,  65. 

Pauperism,  54;   in  large  cities,  26,  27,  30,  290-291  ;  treatment  of,  34,  54,  55, 
290;    causes  of,    35,  36,   40,  47,  48,   146-151,  299;  increase  of,  87;  in 
Austria,  225;  and  crime,  131-140,  305;  inebriate,  140-146,  305;  heredi- 
tary,   148;    reformatory  methods    applied   to,    150;    decrease    of,   166 
economic  necessity  of,  221  ;  in  Turkey,  287. 

Paupers,  chronic,  28,  29  ;  ratio  between  native  and  foreign-born,  60  ;  alien,  63 
employment  of,  85 ;  definition  of,  131,  132  ;  inebriate,  144  ;  classification 
of,    147;    in  Austiia,    216-217;    treatment    of    exceptional    cases,    160 
indoor  and  outdoor,  170;  burial  of,  Belgium,  203;  see  Biireau  de  Bien- 
faisance.  Institutions,  Poorhouses,  Tables,  Vienna,  Whitechapel. 

Peabody,  Francis  G.,  21,  57. 

Pennsylvania,  dependent  children  in,  46. 

Pensions,  for  the  poor,  294  ;  in  Australia,  292  ;  in  Vienna,  263-266;  old  age,  in 
Austria,  221-224  ;  fund  in  Turkey,  287,  288. 

■ Society,  Whitechapel,  167-168. 

Philadelphia,  friendly  visitors  in,  32  ;  relief  agencies  in,  295;  outdoor  relief  in, 
297. 

Pierre  de  Touche,  see  Mamoz. 

Placing-out,  see  Boarding-out. 

Police  stations,  tramps  in,  110-112. 

Poor  associations,  41,  42. 

Poorhouses,  in  New  York  state,  58,  59,  61,  63,  65,  66,  88,  301  ;  Brooklyn,  298  ; 
Wisconsin,  298;    Australia,  292;    Austria,   237,   251;    classification    of 


INDEX.  3  I  5 

inmates  in,  66,  67,  68,  73 ;  children  in,  80;  tramps  in,  102,  105,  112,  123  ; 

abuses  in,  149,  150  ;  management  of,  150,  189  ;  work  test  in,  298,  301  ;  see 

National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction. 
Poor  law,  administration,  290,  297  ;  in  Austria,  19,  216-224,  230,  232,  249;   in 

Germany,  14,  15;  in  Italy,  10. 
in  England,  151-158,  296;  reform  of,  27,  28,  158-172;   amendment 

act,  159-160  ;  see  Whitechapel. 
relief,  report  of  House  of  Lords  committee,  45. 


Poor  relief,  87,  88,  295  ;  centralization  of,  in  Austria,  280-281  ;  Germany,  281 ; 
aim  of,  294;  decrease  of,  in  Saxony,  276;  private,  301  ;  in  Turkey,  287, 
288;  classification  of,  267;  abuses  of,  in  England,  153-154;  tax  in 
Austria,  252-253;  Turkey,  286  ;  see  Boston,  Charity. 

,  public,  94,  108,  148,  149,  2go,  293,  298,  299,  301  ;  in  Australia,  291  ; 

Austria,  232-235,  239-241,246,299;  Vienna,  224,  233,  255,  281;  Eng- 
land, 94,  251,  252;  Germany,  252,  261,  276;  Berlin,  258,  261,  270; 
Sweden,  251  ;  Turkey,  287  ;  see  Charity,  Church. 

Poverty,  and  its  relief,  224-229,  299;  attitude  of  the  Turks  towards,  285-286. 

Prisons,  appointment  of  unpaid  visitors  for,  191. 

Probst,  Friederich,  230-241,  299. 

Prussian  municipal  law,  15. 

Public  aid,  188-191,305;  number  of  idiots  in  New  York  state  receiving,  84 ; 
of  epileptics,  84  ;  of  blind,  84  ;  of  deaf  and  dumb,  84 ;  of  children,  84  ;  to 
poorhouses  in  New  York  state,  85;  to  out-relief,  85;  see  Asylums,  Poor- 
houses,  Poor  relief.  Workhouses. 

and  private  charity,  89-97,  291. 

Health  Act,  London  County  Council,  177-188. 

institutions,  private  unofficial  visitation  of,  188-191,  305. 

relief,  co-operation  of  private  charity  with,  95;  relation  of  the  Church 

to,  96  ;  see  Poor  relief. 

References  to  literature  of  charity,  24,  25,  27,  28,  29,  32,  33,  38,  45,  46,  47,  50, 
57.  63,  75.  82,  83,  151,  158,  243,  244,  246,  250,  253,  271,  275,  279,  281,  301. 

Reform,  of  charitable  methods,  England,  12;  in  electoral  methods,  293;  see 
Poor  law. 

Reitzenstein,  Baron  von,  1-23,  291,  293. 

Relief,  legal,  171  ;  temporary,  292,  293,  295,  299,  300;  to  tramps,  102,  105,  112, 
123;  in  Berlin,  261  ;  in  Vienna,  260,  262,  264;  of  able-bodied  paupers, 
Vienna,  218,  219;  see  Btircaii  de  Bienfaisance,  Indoor  relief.  Outdoor 
relief,  Poor  relief.  Poor  law. 

domicile,  in  Austria,  250,  251,  253;  Germany,  242,  250. 

in  kind,  in  Austria,  238  ;  see  Bureau  de  Bienfaisance,  Whitechapel. 

in  money,  294,  295. 

by  work,  53,  150;  in  Austria,  239;   France,  207-216,  305;   Vienna,  213- 

215;    see    Hospitalite  par    le    Travail,  Laundries,   Maisoi    Ilospitalicre, 
Workrooms,  Woodyards,  Wayfarers'  Lodges. 

Retiungshaiis  (home  of  the  friendless),  266. 
Ricardo,  David,  90. 


3l6  .  INDEX. 

Rich,  304. 

Ring,  Thomas  F.,  1 17-123,  305. 

Robert,  Charles,  208. 

Roberts,  301. 

Robin,  Pastor,  208. 

Rosbaud,  E.,  213. 

Rowland,  L.  L. ,  299,  300. 

Royal  Commissions,  London,  37,  154,  175  ;  see  London. 

Rumford,  Count,  114. 

Saint  Antoine,  Sister,  209,  212. 

Sanborn,  Frank  B. ,  80. 

Sanitary  reform,  London,  173,  175  ;  see  London  County  Council. 

■  science,  study  of,  142  ;  in  England,  175. 

Saxony,  decrease  of  poor  relief  in,  276. 

Schilde,  model  farm  at,  206. 

Sellers,  Edith,  216-224,  299. 

Settlement  laws,  Austria,  228-230,  232,  235-237,  244,  246-247,  268  ;  Prussia,  228. 

,  right  of,  see  Austria,  Vienna. 

Sexes,  separation  of  the,  150  ;  in  New  York  state  poorhouses,  66-68,  88. 

Shaftesbury,  Lord,  37,  91. 

Sheriffs,  system  of  feeing,  112,  113,  114,  115. 

Slums,  in  Chicago,  42  ;  movement  to  destroy  the,  39,  41  ;  tramps  from  the,  304. 

Smith,  Stephen,  75. 

,  T.  Guilford,  296. 

,  Zilpha  D.,  294-295,  297-298. 

Social  problem,  291,  304,  305. 

Science  Conference,  Saratoga,  33. 

Socialism,  public  poor  relief  a  form  of,  298  ;  immigrants  in  favor  of,  302. 
Soci^td d' Assistance  de  Batignolles-Monceau  (relief  society  of,  etc.),  211. 

d' Economie  Charitable  (society  of  philanthropic  economics),  Paris,  3. 

Sociology,  study  of,  57. 
Spence,  Catherine  H.,  290-293. 
State,  the,  in  relation  to  the  poor,  171. 

boards  of  charities,  of  New  York,  attitude  towards  outdoor  relief,  60  ; 

reports  of,  60,  63,  64,  65,  71,  74,  75  ;  efforts  to  secure  immigration  legis- 
lation, 62;  asylums  for  feeble-minded  women  established  by,  72;  act 
to  protect  orphans,  80;  authority  of,  over  corporate  charities,  84;  of 
Ohio,  304  ;  see  Statistics  of  Wisconsin,  298. 

Charities  Aid  Association  of  New  York,  82;  report  of,  188. 

Statistics  ;  see  Tables. 

Bradfield  Union,  156. 

Bureau  de  Bieiifaisance,  211. 

Chalmelle,  agricultural  colony  at,  210. 

Charities,  of  Austria,  251,  252,  260,  261,  262,  267;  Berlin,  270;  Saxony, 
276;  Vienna,  256,  257,  259,  274,  275,  278  ;  England  and  "Wales,  170; 
London,  170;  Whitechapel,  164,  167,  16S,  169,  170,  261,  269. 


INDEX. 


317 


Statistics. — Cotitinued. 

Employment,  free  public  offices  in  Ohio,  128-130. 

Home  for  women  and  children,  temporary,  Boston,  118. 

Hospitalite  far  le  Travail,  209. 

Immigrants  and  immigration,  133-135,  136,  137-138,  302. 

Improving  the  Condition  of  the  Poor,  Association  for.  New  York,  41. 

Maison  Hospitalicre,  208. 

New  York  state,  asylums  for  children,  81,  85  ;  for  insane,  78-79  ;  cost  of 
its  institutions,  85,86;  children  supported  by,  81-82  ;  Board  of  Chari- 
ties, 64,  65  ;  poorhouses,  59,  66 ;  schools  for  the  blind,  7 1  ;  institutions, 
70,  71.  83- 

Paupers,  62,  63,  64,  65. 

Society  d^ Assistance  de  Batignolles-Monceau,  211. 

Tramps,  103-107. 

Unions  d^ Assistance,  211-213. 

Unemployed,  Germany,  271  ;  Vienna,  271,  275. 
Sternegg,  Inama,  279. 
Stewart,  Wm.  Rhinelander,  70. 
Storrs,  Lucius  C,  300. 

Sweating  system,  a  result  of  pauper  immigration,  302. 
Sweden,  charity  in,  19-20,  251  ;  unemployed  in,  271-272. 
Switzerland,  charity  in,  295;  unemployed  in,  271-272. 

Tables  : 

Austria  :  expenditures  for  institutions,  251  ;  for  charity,  252. 

Berlin:  expenditures  for  economic  industries,  270. 

Bureau  de  Bienfaisance :  expenditures  for  charity,  252,  261. 

Criminals  and  paupers,  native  and  foreign-born,  134 ;  immigration,   135; 

parentage  of,  136. 
England  and  Wales :  cost  of  outdoor  relief,  170 ;  expenditures  for  charities, 

252;  outdoor  paupers  relieved,  170;  ratio  of  relief  to  population,  169. 
France  :  expenditures  for  charities,  252. 
Germany:  expenditures  for  charities,  252. 
Italy:  expenditures  for  charities,  252. 
London:  cost  of  outdoor  relief,  170;  outdoor  paupers  relieved,  170;  ratio 

of  relief  to  population,  169. 
New  York  city,  housing  the  poor  in,  41. 
state:    expenditures  for  charities  and  reformatories,  86;    for 

institutions,  70,  71,  72,  84,  85. 
Ohio,  free  employment  offices,  129-130. 
Vienna:  poor  relief,  282-283;  poor  relief  system,  257;  residence  in,  of 

paupers  without  settlement  rights,  279. 
Whitechapel    Union  :    comparative   statement    of   pauperism,   1870-1893, 

165;  cost  of  outdoor  relief,  170;  indoor  paupers  relieved,  1870-1893, 

170;  outdoor  paupers,  170;  ratio  of  relief  to  population,  169. 
Tenement-houses  for  the  poor,  see  Homes. 


3l8  INDEX. 

Trained  Nursing,  Association  for  Promoting,  London,  190. 

Tramps,  97-107,  109-117,  119-122,  303  ;  in  Boston,  119*;  in  Ohio,  303-304;  as 
temporary  inmates  of  poorhouses,  102,  105,  112,  123;  of  hospitals,  99, 
105;  intemperate,  106,  no,  115;  criminal,  106,  no;  in  police  stations, 
110-112;  employment  for,  110-113,304;  Jir^  Relief  by  work. 

Transit  for  the  poor,  cheap,  London,  175-176. 

Tucker,  William  G.,  34. 

Turkey,  charity  in,  284-289,  299;  poor  tax  in,  286;  pauperism  in,  287  ;  public 
poor  relief  in,  287  ;  institutions,  288. 

Twining,  Louisa,  188-191,  305. 

Type,  racial,  see  Immigration. 

Unemployed,  215-216,  271-272;  see  France,  Paupers,  Relief  by  work. 
Union  of  charitable  associations,  Dresden,  281. 

of  the  committee  for  poor  and  sick  relief,  Mayence,  281. 

Uiiio7is  d'' Assistance  (relief  unions),  Paris,  209,  211,  212. 
United  Hebrew  Relief  Society,  report  of,  42. 

States,  charity  in,  13-14. 

Universities,  value  of,  in  solving  economic  problems,  91. 

Vagrancy,  303;  history  of,  loS ;  in  Gejmany,  114;  England,  114;  see  Tramps. 

Vagrants,  157;  treatment  of,  150. 

Vakonfs  (pious  institutions),  288. 

Vallance,  Wm.,  158-172,  296,  299. 

Van  Gfeert,  Prosper,  198-206,  296,  297. 

Verein  ge^en  Verarmung  und  Bettelei  (society  for  the  prevention  of  pauper- 
ism and  beggary),  262,  297. 

Versorgungsanstalten  (homes),  Austria,  251  ;  see  Vienna. 

Versorgungshiiuser  (homes  for  aged  paupers),  Vienna,  222-223. 

Vienna,  care  of  dependent  children  in,  218-219,  266,  267;  relief  of  able-bodied 
paupers-,  219,  220;  public  institutions  for  paupers,  219;  workhouses, 
219,  220,  273,  275;  care  of  aged  paupers,  222,  223;  hospitals,  223-224; 
cost  of  poor  relief,  224;  public  poor  relief,  233,  255,  281,  299;  poor 
relief  and  its  reform,  241-283;  right  of  settlement  in,  241,  248,  249, 
255-256,  268,  279;  poor  laws,  248,  249,  253;  settlement  laws,  256; 
medical  relief,  259,  267,  269,  277;  temporary  relief,  260,  262,  264;  pen- 
sions, 263-266;  domicile  relief,  279  ;  charity  fund,  278-279  ;  poor  insur- 
ance, 276,  277;  poor  tax,  252-253,  280;  unemployed  in,  271-272,  276; 
employment  bureau,  272,  273  ;  house  of  correction,  276  ;  poor  police, 
276,  277;  see  Tables. 

Visitors,  see  Friendly  visitors. 

Visitation  of  public  institutions,  188-191. 

Von  Call,  Baron,  246. 

Wages  of  weavers  in  Austria,  226. 
Wagner,  A.,  282. 


I 
INDEX.  319 

Walk,  James  W.,  295. 

Walker,  Francis  A.,  40,  57,  154. 

Wardner,  Louisa  R.,  301. 

Wards  of  society,  95. 

Waterlow,  Sir  Sydney,  37,  38. 

Wayfarers'  Lodges,  26;  in  Boston,  26,  1 19-123;  Berlin,  270;  Vienna,  273. 

Wayland,  Francis,  46. 

Weber,  John  B.,  131-140,  305. 

Werkhaiis,  Vienna,  273-275. 

White,  Alfred  T.,  34,  38,  53,  54,  56- 

Arnold,  191-197,  302. 

Whitechapel  Union,  161 ;  outdoor  relief  in,  161,  162,  163,  168  ;  indoor  relief, 
162,  163  ;  cost  of  relief  in  kind,  163  ;  children  boarded-out  by,  164-167  ; 
effects  of  poor  law  administration  in,  161,  166;  cases  referred  to  charity 
organization  society  by,  167  ;  homeless  in  workhouse  in,  169-170;  sum- 
mary of  work,  171-172;  see  Statistics,  Tables. 

Wilcox,  Ansley,  290,  291,  295,  296,  297. 

Willard  Asylum  for  Insane,  73,  74,  75,  78, 

Wilson,  Anna  T.,  82. 

Wines,  Frederick  H.,  290. 

Wisconsin,  system  for  treatment  of  the  insane,  77  ;  laws  against  tramps  in, 
no;  treatment  of  tramps  in,  113,  115;  Jtv  State  boards  of  charities. 

Woodyards,  1 19-123;  in  Brooklyn,  53;  j^^  Relief  by  work. 

Work  test  applied  to  pauperism;  150;  test  in  poorhouses,  298,  301  ;  see  Relief 
by  work,  Wayfarers'  Lodges,  Workhouses. 

Workhouse  test,  153-154. 

Girls'  Aid  Committees,  London,  190. 

Visiting  Society,  London,  189,  191, 

Workhouses,  13 ;  in  England,  12;  Austria,  220;  Vienna,  219,  220,  273-275; 
need  of  private  unofficial  visitation  of,  188-189  ;  sending  tramps  to 
state,  115,  116;  see  Whitechapel. 

Workrooms,  53. 

Wright,  A.  O.,  108-117,  146-151,  298-299,  3C0,  301,  303. 

Zekat  (public  poor  tax),  286. 

Zwangarbeithaus  (compulsory  labor  colony),  Vienna,  219-220,  221. 


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